The market remains Neutral — Fading. Tonight's improvement gives traders more charts to review, but established advancing trends are still disappearing. This is a selective screening market, with more reason to refresh watchlists than to relax standards.
The recovery still needs confirmation
Net new 52-week highs reached 251, extending their positive run to nine sessions. That is genuine improvement beneath the index. But the five-session balance of moves from basing into advancing versus advancing into topping widened to a deficit of 100 from 90 yesterday. Better short-term participation has yet to reverse the loss of Stage 2 trends.
Technology rebuilds; financials deteriorate
Technology gained 1.6%, with semiconductors showing a 22.5 percentage point increase in Stage 2 participation over 20 sessions. That makes chips a useful pocket for chart review despite their negative monthly return. Energy fell 1.7% but still leads sectors in relative strength and Stage 2 participation, with 58% advancing. One weak session has not erased that leadership.
Financials present a different problem. Their Stage 2 share is 24.4%, down 32.2 percentage points over 20 sessions. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and ING Group moved from advancing into topping tonight. Those changes deserve attention in existing holdings before tomorrow's search for fresh setups.
Start with the earlier charts
Exponent and BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings lead the early-stage setup list. Both score 8 out of 10 and sit 9.9% above their own 50-day averages. They are starting points for review, not automatic signals. For technology pullbacks, Braze and Shopify offer a separate set of charts to examine.
Check deterioration as carefully as improvement: Teradyne and Quanta Services also left Stage 2 for topping tonight. The routine remains to review stage changes in holdings first, then inspect early setups for chart quality rather than treating a strong market day as confirmation.
| Stock | Sector | Setup | % 1D |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exponent | Industrials | 8.0 | -1.6% |
| BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings | Consumer Staples | 8.0 | -1.2% |
| NorthWestern Energy Group | Utilities | 7.8 | +1.8% |
| Funko | Consumer Discretionary | 7.8 | -2.4% |
| Black Hills | Utilities | 7.8 | +1.9% |
| Republic Services | Industrials | 7.8 | -2.3% |
| Kinder Morgan | Energy | 7.8 | -0.3% |
| Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. Sunstone Hotel Investors | Real Estate | 7.8 | +1.1% |
| Sector | 1D | 1M | 3M | RS | Stage 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Materials | +2.2% | -0.9% | +4.5% | 72 | 32% |
| Information Technology | +1.6% | -1.7% | +15.8% | 72 | 42% |
| Consumer Discretionary | +1.2% | +5.2% | +6.8% | 56 | 21% |
| Industrials | +1.0% | +0.6% | +4.3% | 65 | 21% |
| Utilities | +0.8% | +8.6% | -2.9% | 55 | 12% |
| Communication Services | +0.4% | -6.8% | -3.8% | 63 | 33% |
| Health Care | +0.2% | +4.0% | +9.6% | 73 | 39% |
| Financials | -0.2% | +1.6% | -0.6% | 65 | 24% |
| Real Estate | -0.7% | +2.2% | -7.1% | 61 | 8% |
| Consumer Staples | -0.9% | +6.6% | +1.7% | 66 | 27% |
| Energy | -1.7% | +8.4% | +13.9% | 86 | 58% |
Work the same data yourself: open the full stock screener, see where money is moving on the sector rotation page, or check the market-timing read. New to the method? Start with the four stages.
Stage2Stocks is an educational stage-analysis screener. These wraps describe what the screen shows across US-listed stocks. They are not investment advice, recommendations, or buy/sell calls. Always do your own research.