NYSE's breadth and volume data suggests investors aren't scrambling to buy stocks
Despite the big, broad rally in the major stock market indexes, breadth readings for the NYSE suggest investors aren't so worried about missing the boat to buy stocks. There are 1,960 stock gaining ground on the NYSE, compared with 925 declining stocks and 146 stock that are unchanged, according to FactSet, which means 64.7% of the stocks traded are rising. But volume of advancing stocks represents just 59.2% of the total volume. That has pushed the NYSE's Arms Index up to 1.434. The Arms Index is a volume-weighted breadth measure, which tends to rise above the equilibrium 1.000 rating when the market falls, as the proportion of volume flowing into declining stocks tends to be higher than the volume flowing into advancing stocks. Basically, Tuesday's Arms reading suggests investors are more worried about missing the opportunity to sell the stocks that are declining than they are about buying stocks that are rising. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is rallying 165 points, or 0.7% and the S&P 500 is gaining 0.7%, both toward record closes.
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