The S&P 500 Index posted its sixth consecutive monthly gain in August, up +3.61%, capping its best six-month gain since 1933. It was an odd sort of month, in that only two S&P sectors, Financials (+12.99%) and Industrials (+4.53%), posted better results than the index itself, while eight sectors lagged. Apart from financials, which rocketed ahead, the other nine S&P sectors were up only +1.7%, on average.
Trading volume became highly concentrated in financials late in the month in what looked to us like an unhealthy outbreak of speculative activity. Former pariahs, AIG (up +245% for the month), Freddie Mac (+269%), and Fannie Mae (+233%) took center stage in the run-up. According to data from The Wall Street Journal’s Market Data Group, five stocks, the aforementioned trio plus Citigroup and Bank of America, accounted for 35% of NYSE
Composite volume on Thursday, August 27. Those same five stocks also accounted for an average of more than 30% of daily volume from August 5 through month-end.
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Trading volume became highly concentrated in financials late in the month in what looked to us like an unhealthy outbreak of speculative activity. Former pariahs, AIG (up +245% for the month), Freddie Mac (+269%), and Fannie Mae (+233%) took center stage in the run-up. According to data from The Wall Street Journal’s Market Data Group, five stocks, the aforementioned trio plus Citigroup and Bank of America, accounted for 35% of NYSE
Composite volume on Thursday, August 27. Those same five stocks also accounted for an average of more than 30% of daily volume from August 5 through month-end.
Read the complete article
