It is one other day with extra shares up than down. The ratio Friday is sort of 3:1, advancing shares to declining ones on the New York Inventory Trade. It is 2:1 on Nasdaq. You’d assume with two enormous overhangs to the market — Federal Reserve coverage uncertainty and tariffs — shares can be in troublesome form, however that is not taking place. Tech is lagging. You’d assume that with the S & P 500 up 4% on the yr, tech would once more be the chief, however a lot of the greatest performing expertise shares final yr are underperforming, with solely Meta a robust standout. Tesla, down 13% Microsoft, down 3.4% Apple, down 2.6% Alphabet, down 2.1% Broadcom, up 0.9% Nvidia, up 1.7% Amazon, up 4.3% Meta, up 25.9% As a substitute, the market is continuous to broaden out, although not in an enormous approach. (That is good.) The worst performers of final yr — supplies, well being care, power, actual property, client staples — are among the many market leaders this yr. Sector Leaders in 2025 Communication Companies, up 8.4% Supplies, up 7.8% Well being Care, up 6.3% Shopper Staples, up 6.0% Vitality up, 5.2% Utilities up, 4.8% Industrials up, 4.6% Actual Property, up 4.1% And whereas the S & P 500 is simply shy of a document excessive, so is the broader Russell 1000 . The common inventory is doing superb. 1.) 330 of the five hundred shares within the S & P 500 are up this yr – principally two-thirds of the index. 2.) The S & P Equal Weight ETF (RSP) is up 3.6% this yr, neck and neck with the S & P 500. 3.) The S & P 500 advance/decline line, after collapsing in December and into mid-January, has recovered and has been sideways for the previous few weeks. Momentum indicators are in a buying and selling vary, and that is not a foul factor. First, the share of shares buying and selling above their 50-day shifting common is at 55%. After falling off a cliff in December and the primary half of January (it was as little as 15%), it is again to the place it was in mid-January. Additionally, one other carefully watched momentum indicator, the share of shares above their 200-day shifting common, can also be at 56%, about the place it was after the restoration in mid-January. For now, that’s ok. “Extra typical after a peak can be a continued weakening, however not up to now,” Frank Gretz at Wellington Shields mentioned in a notice to purchasers right now. Earnings for the fourth quarter have been excellent, and there may be solely modest slippage for first quarter and full yr estimates. With 75% of the S & P reporting, fourth-quarter earnings are up 15.3%, based on LSEG. Seventy-five % are beating estimates — above the common of 67%. And corporations are beating by a large margin: 6.3% above expectations, which is effectively above the long-term common of 4.2% above estimates. These are excellent numbers. First-quarter estimates, which began 2025 up 12.2%, have slipped to eight.5%. Estimates sometimes decline within the first half of 1 / 4 as analysts regulate their optimistic estimates downward to answer the often extra cautious feedback from CEOs on earnings calls. “Cuts to ahead quarter estimates are the norm, and the dimensions of minimize up to now is consistent with the historic common at this stage in prior earnings seasons,” Binky Chadha, chief U.S. fairness and world strategist at Deutsche Financial institution, mentioned in a notice to purchasers this week. For 2025 as an entire, estimates have slipped solely modestly, to 11.4% from 14.0% on Jan. 1. Given these numbers — and the truth that we’re simply on the sting of recent highs on the S & P 500 and Russell 1000 — the market appears to be saying that it’s not but apprehensive about one or no price cuts this yr, nor does it imagine that there shall be a large implementation of tariffs. If that have been the case, earnings estimates would probably drop into the mid-single digits. That’s positively not priced into the market now.