As is usually the case, most stocks are doing worse than the index. While the S&P 500 is mired in a 15% drawdown (as of yesterday’s close), the median stock is 23.5% below its 52-week high.
Looking within the S&P 500 (as of yesterday’s close, data from YCharts), things have gotten ugly out there. There are more stocks 50% below their 52-week high (21) than stocks within 5% of their 52-week high (18).
40% of S&P 500 stocks (black/gray) remain within 20% of their 52-week highs. The other 60% are in what some would refer to as a bear market.
Not surprisingly, the larger stocks in general are holding up better than the smaller stocks.
In somewhat surprising news the cheapest stocks, at least sorted by P/E, are getting hit the hardest.
Sticking with the S&P 500, the number of new lows has spiked, which happened near previous bottoms (Feb 2016, Aug 2015, Oct 2011).
The washout in percent of stocks above the 200-day shows a similar picture.
The good news is that a lot of damage has already been done. The bad news is nobody knows how much more damage is still to come.
Michael Batnick is a managing partner at Ritholtz Wealth Management. He is the co-host of Animal Spirits, What Are Your Thoughts, and The Compound and Friends. For disclosure information please see here.
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