What Decade Is This?

“Dude, we’ re getting a flashback to the late 1990s.” Of the handful of stocks on the 52-week high list today, two notable standouts are Dell (DELL) and Intel (INTC). The two stalwarts of the 1990s tech boom have both rallied sharply, and on a mixed session for the market today, DELL is up over 5%, and INTC is up 3%.

The rally for INTC is especially noteworthy as sentiment towards the stock has made a complete 180-degree turn in the last year. A year ago, the stock traded below $20. Today, it’s over $60!

As shown above, shares of INTC never came close to testing their 200-day moving average (DMA) during the most recent pullback, and the rally over the last several days has only pushed the price to historically extreme levels relative to that long-term moving average. As of right now, INTC is trading 76.6% above its 200-DMA, which ranks among the widest spreads since at least 1984.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the spread exceeded 75% during a few other rallies, but this year the spread has reached record extremes. Earlier this year, the spread reached a record 87.99%. What makes this recent move more notable is that less than two years ago, INTC closed farther below its 200 DMA (-50.5%) than on any other day since 1984 except for one (4/4/01).

INTC’s latest short-term move also ranks as extreme. With a rally of 56.08% over the last nine trading days, INTC is on pace for its largest nine-day rally since at least 1984. Unlike the 200-DMA spread, which reached similar levels in the 1980s and 1990s, no other nine-day period in the last 42 years has seen anything even remotely similar in percentage terms to the rally the stock has seen since 3/30. In 1970, Intel adopted the slogan “Intel Delivers,” and 56 years later, the company’s stock just delivered like never before.