After two straight down days, the S&P 500’s Technology sector capped off last week’s trading with another all-time high on Friday. The record came with limited company, though. Just 2.7% of Technology stocks were at 52-week highs, and as low as that sounds, it’s the highest percentage of any of the 11 S&P 500 sectors.
Since 1990, there have been 22 prior days when the Technology sector followed consecutive down days with an all-time high. These occurrences generally came in clusters, with half taking place during the 1990s. After November 1999, the sector went more than 18 years without another instance because it spent most of that stretch below its March 2000 peak. Once new highs re-emerged, occurrences picked up again.
Forward performance following those prior occurrences has been mixed in the short term but more consistently positive further out. One week later, Technology averaged a decline of 0.05%, although it was higher nearly two-thirds of the time. Six months later, the average gain was 8.73%, with positive returns following 16 of 22 occurrences. One year later, the sector was higher 18 of 22 times for an average gain of 24.87%. Those are strong numbers, but several observations came close together and captured portions of the same rallies.
Technology may have returned to record highs on Friday, but the same can’t be said for most of its components. The chart below shows the highest percentage of stocks at 52-week highs in any sector each day. The latest reading of just 2.7%, which belongs to Technology, is near the bottom of the range over the past five years and the weakest top-sector reading since May 14, 2025. That means even in the sector with the broadest participation in new highs, more than 97% of its components did not hit 52-week highs.
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