I mentioned Tuesday that stocks were not in a bull market, but were heading in that direction. The most important indicator is broadening participation: more stocks advancing than declining. The NYSE Composite Index Advance/Decline Line has had a huge push upward in the last two weeks: it now sits at its highest level since mid-September, when it was in a downtrend that did not stop until mid-October.
The S & P 500 Equal Weight Index , an equal weighted-basket of the 500 stocks in the S & P 500, is up nearly 17% since then, while the S & P 500 is up only 11%. In an equal-weighted world, Apple and Microsoft are just another two stocks, instead of the more than 11% of the market cap-weighted S & P 500.