The S&P 500 closed the week at 7,743.41, up 92.91 points, or 1.21%, from September 18 to September 25. Breadth was unremarkable for a gain this size: only 217 of the index's 503 members finished higher. The concentration ratio came in at 69%, and the equal-weight version of the index actually fell 0.27% over the same stretch, which tells you plainly that this was a handful of stocks pulling the average up, not a broad advance.
Those stocks were easy to spot. Meta Platforms added 25.11 points as it climbed 12.98% for the week, Micron Technology contributed 21.00 points on a 6.54% gain, and Advanced Micro Devices added 17.54 points while rising 12.65%. Nvidia and Microsoft rounded out the top five with 13.43 and 13.37 points respectively. On the other side, Amazon.com subtracted 11.38 points, JPMorgan Chase took off 8.03 points, and Alphabet's two share classes together cost the index 10.41 points, with Cisco Systems knocking off another 5.11.
The Dow
The Dow closed at 51,829.00, up 146.36 points, or 0.28%, a far quieter week than the S&P's. Only 13 of its 30 members rose, and the index's concentration ratio hit 260%, meaning its winners and losers were pulling in wildly different directions and largely canceling each other out. Amgen did the heavy lifting, adding 172.13 points on a 7.51% jump, with Microsoft contributing another 133.08 points on its 4.53% gain. Caterpillar, Sherwin-Williams and Honeywell filled out the rest of the winners' column.
The drag came from a different corner of the index. McDonald's fell 4.73% and cost the Dow 69.78 points, Travelers dropped 3.09% for a 68.83-point hit, and Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs each subtracted between 39 and 40 points. Where the S&P's story was chipmakers against Alphabet, the Dow's was two big movers offsetting broad weakness in consumer and financial names, a split that left the blue-chip average barely positive while the S&P and Nasdaq ran further ahead.
The Nasdaq 100
The Nasdaq 100 closed at 30,608.13, up 963.96 points, or 3.25%, the strongest of the three indexes by a wide margin. Breadth here looked healthier: 65 of 101 members advanced, concentration sat at just 34%, and the equal-weight return of 2.6% came close to matching the cap-weighted gain. That is a meaningfully broader rally than the S&P's, where mega-cap strength masked equal-weight weakness.
Nvidia led with 112.70 points on a modest 1.26% gain, but Meta Platforms was right behind at 112.17 points on its 12.98% surge, with Micron adding 101.31 points and AMD 85.40. Microsoft chipped in 77.33 points. The same Alphabet weakness that hurt the S&P showed up here too, with the two share classes together subtracting 111.56 points, and Amazon, Cisco and Adobe rounding out the laggards.
The sectors
Eleven sectors split cleanly by theme this week. Technology led at 3.51%, followed by Communication Services at 1.92% and Health Care at 1.38%. Industrials inched up 0.39%. From there it was a steady decline through Materials, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Financials, Real Estate, Energy and Utilities, which closed the week down 3.83%.
Technology's gain of 6.65 points was powered chiefly by Advanced Micro Devices, which alone added 1.18 points to the sector on its 12.65% weekly move, with the broader chip and software names behind it echoing the same strength seen in the Nasdaq.
Utilities was the week's weakest sector, off 3.83%, or 1.58 points. NextEra Energy did the most damage, subtracting 0.39 points on a 5.44% decline, part of a broader retreat across rate-sensitive names that also weighed on Real Estate.
The payload for this week does not include a percentile ranking against the past year for any of the three indexes, so no historical context can be attached to the size of this move. What the breadth and concentration figures do show is a market where the S&P's headline gain relied on a small group of names, the Dow's smaller gain masked real internal weakness, and the Nasdaq's rally was the most broadly shared of the three.
The numbers
- The S&P 500 closed the week at 7,743.41, up 92.91 points, or 1.21%.
- The Dow closed at 51,829.00, up 146.36 points, or 0.28%, with only 13 of 30 members rising.
- The Nasdaq 100 closed at 30,608.13, up 963.96 points, or 3.25%, with 65 of 101 members rising.
- Breadth in the S&P 500 was 217 of 503 members advancing, below half despite the index's gain.
- Meta Platforms was the week's biggest single driver, adding 25.11 points to the S&P 500 on a 12.98% gain.
- Amazon.com was the S&P 500's biggest drag, subtracting 11.38 points on a 1.59% decline.
- Technology was the strongest sector, up 3.51%, led by Advanced Micro Devices.
- Utilities was the weakest sector, down 3.83%, dragged lower by NextEra Energy.
- Percentile data ranking this week's moves against the past year was not available in this week's figures.
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