The stock market isn’t as well as it looks. The S & P 500 this week neared fresh record closing highs, putting the benchmark up more than 1% over the past month through Wednesday’s close. The index is also riding a three-day winning streak. There’s only one problem: Just a few stocks are doing most of the work. That’s reflected by the recent struggles in the equal-weighted S & P 500. That benchmark, which gives every company the same importance, is down 4% over the past month. The divergence has traders worried that, if the few stocks driving the gains start to falter, the broader market will be in trouble. BTIG’s Jonathan Krinsky said that the S & P 500 has seen five consecutive sessions in which the number of stocks making 52-week lows is greater than those reaching 52-week highs. “It’s hard to fight tech momentum right now, but we also can’t ignore the extreme dispersion and increasing number of stats that rhyme with [the year] 2000. For the near-term this likely means more chop, but we remain cautious over the medium-term,” he said. Adding to worries is that this dispersion is happening with the S & P 500 just a hair below all-time highs. The S & P 500 is within 1% of its intraday all-time high from mid-August. SentimenTrader founder Jason Goepfert also warned this week that S & P 500 stocks making 52-week lows haven’t outnumbered those reaching 52-week highs with the index so close to record levels since 1999 . Despite the market cap-weighted S & P 500 performing well on the surface, only two sectors are higher over the past month: technology and communication services. Intel , Skyworks Solutions and Meta Platforms are all among the top advancers in the S & P 500, up more than 30% in the past month.
Just a few stocks are lifting the market to records these days. That’s worrying traders
Sep 23, 2026
