Real Estate And Utilities Giving Up Ground

On Friday, the S&P 500’s percentage of stocks above their 50-DMA fell to 53.7%, the lowest reading for the index since 6/17.

Five sectors (Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, Real Estate, Technology, and Utilities) now have fewer than half their members above their 50-DMAs. Real Estate and Utilities are two of the most extreme examples of the recent deterioration.

Real Estate's reading has fallen 35.9 percentage points in four trading days, from 60% down to 24.1%. Even before that bounce to 60%, the sector saw just 22.6% of stocks above their 50-DMA on 8/11, its lowest level since 4/1.

The Real Estate sector's price action has also swung quickly. It traded in a normal range for 21 days, but went from nearly overbought (0.9 standard deviations above its 50-DMA) to nearly oversold (0.7 standard deviations below) in three trading days. That’s a swing of 1.64 standard deviations.

Utilities, on the other hand, has been oversold for nine straight days and is now back in extreme oversold territory as of Friday.

As the most oversold sector this year, Friday’s close brings Utilities' 2026 total number of days at least one standard deviation below its 50-DMA to 43, compared to just 30 days when it was one or more standard deviations above.

Utilities' drop-off in the percentage of stocks above their 50-DMAs has been dramatic, but not unprecedented. At 9.7% on Friday, the reading is down 87.1 percentage points from 7/24, and one of several dips below 10% in the last year.