Investing Update: Was That The Market Reset?
What I'm buying, selling & watching
Two green weeks in a row, and the best week for the S&P 500 since April. This week saw two new all-time highs, the 25th and 26th on the year and the first close at a record since June 2nd.
It wasn’t just mega-caps leading the way. The Nasdaq led at 4.7%, the Russell 2000 wasn’t far behind at 3.2% and even the Dow finished up 1.8%. Gold had its biggest weekly gain since January, up 8.7%, even as stocks ripped right along with it, an odd combo. Oil was the lone outlier down 9% on the week. About as clean of a risk-on week as you’ll see.
Market Recap
Weekly Heat Map Of Stocks
Sentiment Check
This now makes three weeks in a row of more bears than bulls. It’s quite surprising with the market at all-time highs.
The Setup
A few numbers worth visiting before we get to the good stuff.
Since 1950, buying the S&P 500 at the start of August in a midterm year has been positive 100% of the time. One year later, the average return is north of 19%.
Breadth back this up too. 57% of S&P 500 stocks are beating the SPY this year, the best reading since 2013. A sharp turn from the 30% and 33% reading that we saw in 2024 and 2025.
And under the hood, the percentage of S&P 500 stocks trading above their 200-day just snapped higher again at over 72% and climbing.
