By Kristoff De Turck - reviewed by Aldwin Keppens
Last update: May 15, 2025
(All data & visualisations by ChartMill.com)
The overall short-term market trend remains bullish, as all three major index ETFs, SPY, QQQ and IWM, continue to hold above key support levels, despite mixed intraday performances.
The long-term trend remains neutral overall, although QQQ continues to stand out with a positive long-term trend. Both SPY and IWM remain in neutral territory, reflecting the broader market’s hesitance to break decisively into new high ground.
The market breadth data from May 2 through May 14, 2025, shows that bullish momentum, which was strong in early May, began to wane significantly by mid-month. A short-term pullback is evident as advancing breadth numbers declined sharply over the last two sessions.
Strong Breadth Days
May 2, May 8, May 12 stand out with robust advancing day percentages (78.1%, 65.5%, and 75.4% respectively), supported by strong figures in advancing 4% days (8.2%, 10%, and 20.9%).
These days also saw high participation above key moving averages (SMA20+, SMA50+, etc.), with May 2 showing 85% of stocks above their 20-day MA — indicative of broad market strength.
Breadth Deterioration Emerging
May 13 and May 14 marked a clear shift in momentum:
May 14 had only 32.1% advancing stocks and a very low 2.6% hitting 4% gains.
65.4% of stocks declined, with nearly 71% of stocks having declined over the past 3 months.
Decliners significantly outnumbered advancers, and participation across all SMAs weakened.
Strong Weekly Breadth (Earlier Period)
-Between May 2–9, the Advancing Week percentage remained above 50%, peaking at 71.8% on May 12.
SMA Participation:
The percentage of stocks above the 20-day SMA dropped from 85% (May 2) to 72.4% (May 14).
More notably, stocks above the 200-day SMA declined to 39.1% (May 14) from 30.4% (May 2), showing longer-term strength is lagging behind short-term rallies.
New Highs (NH) remain very low (around 1.7–3.2%), not confirming strength at index highs.
New Lows (NL) have stayed relatively muted but ticked up slightly on May 14 to 1.4%, suggesting slight internal deterioration.
Despite short-term rallies, Declining 3-Month Breadth remains high:
Around 70–73% of stocks are still in a 3-month decline.
The market experienced broad strength earlier in May, with widespread participation and bullish signals across moving averages and advance/decline metrics.
By May 13–14, breadth deteriorated significantly, with more than 65% of stocks declining and key momentum metrics rolling over.
While some longer-term measures still reflect strength, the short-term internal weakness suggests the market could be due for further consolidation or a deeper pullback, unless leadership broadens again.
NYSEARCA:IWM (6/25/2025, 11:05:09 AM)
212.68
-1.79 (-0.83%)
NASDAQ:QQQ (6/25/2025, 11:05:10 AM)
541.375
+1.6 (+0.3%)
NYSEARCA:SPY (6/25/2025, 11:05:10 AM)
607.38
+0.6 (+0.1%)
Find more stocks in the Stock Screener
Breadth Bounces Back: The Rally Finds Broader Legs
Market breadth bounces back, more stocks trading above key averages as bullish momentum builds after last week's chop.
Market internals weaken ahead of U.S. strike on Iran; advance-decline ratios and breadth metrics flash growing risk aversion.
Steady But Fragile: Breadth Signals a Market in Flux
The Market Breathes Out Again – But It’s a Nervous Exhale
Friday’s breadth collapse raised some eyebrows, but Monday erased a lot of that doubt.
Sharp Reversal as Breadth Collapses
Bulls still have the ball, but they’re no longer sprinting. They’re looking over their shoulder.
While fewer stocks participated in gains today, most remain above key moving averages, and longer-term momentum is holding.
The market breadth on June 10, 2025, points to a strengthening bullish undercurrent, especially after the volatility of early June. Breadth metrics now show consistency across daily, weekly, and medium-term indicators.
Breadth metrics for June 9 confirm that last week’s sharp selloff on June 5 was likely a short-lived pullback rather than the start of a new bearish phase.
The June 6 session confirms that breadth is not only improving but now supporting the index-level gains we’ve seen in the major averages.