, investors said. A recent pullback in U.S. bond yields, whose ascent punished growth stocks last year, is also buoying their prices in 2023.
Strength in megacaps also cloaks weakness elsewhere. Measures of market breadth have turned more negative, while the equal-weighted S&P 500, a proxy for the average stock in the benchmark index, is down over 5% since March. Their rebound this year accelerated as concerns over the banking system spiked, and the combined weight of Apple and Microsoft in the S&P 500 recently topped 13%. That was the highest in over 30 years for any top two stocks in the index, according to Todd Sohn, technical strategist at Strategas.
The number of new 52-week lows on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq was on pace to eclipse new highs for three straight weeks, a reversal after new highs had topped new lows almost every week to start 2023, according to Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Hi Mount Research.