The S&P 500 (SPX, +0.9%) rose for an eighth straight week, as did the S&P 100 (OEX, +0.5%). The Nasdaq added 0.5%, the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) gained 1.2%, the S&P MidCap 400 (MDY) tacked on 1.8%, the Russell 2000 (IWM) popped 2.7%, and the S&P Small Cap 600 (SML) increased 2.5%. One might assume that breadth was good, with strength in the smaller-market-cap indices. But it wasn't. The five-day average of NYSE advancers-decliners was only 276.

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Stocks continue to battle, but ultimately weather quite nicely, a volatile news flow. The bottom line is that (as of last week) the S&P 500 is up 5.6% year to date, the Nasdaq is up 8.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 2.9%. Insiders, meanwhile, are not bailing on stocks at all-time highs, but nor are they jumping in to buy aggressively. Indeed, the major overall sell/buy ratios from Vickers Stock Research show insider sentiment that is solidly neutral. In the short-term (using one-week data), part of this can be attributed to earnings season, when insiders are broadly prohibited from trading. But the data in the longer-term window (eight weeks) for insider sentiment has caught our eye. Looking at Vickers' eight-week sell/buy ratios on a sector basis, we note growing bullishness. Back at the end of March, five sectors logged neutral ratios, four were bullish, and two were bearish. Today, eight sectors are bullish, two are bearish, and only one is neutral. Drilling down, long-term bullish activity is now apparent in the Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Financial, Healthcare, Industrial, Materials, Real Estate, and Utility sectors. Within this grouping, two sectors are newly bullish, with the Materials and Utility sectors moving from neutral to bullish since last week. Elsewhere, the Energy sector has improved from bearish to neutral week over week. From a shorter-term perspective, Communication Services has maintained a bullish one-week sell/buy ratio for two weeks. Should this improvement have legs, the sector may well flip to a long-term bullish stance. This week, analysts at Vickers highlighted insider transactions of interest at BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK) and Adobe Inc. (NGS: ADBE).

The stock market slipped back into an "AI only" trade last week, with the major stock indices again propelled higher by Information Technology (XLK +3.8%). The S&P 500 (SPX) featured some volatility, but was able to add 0.6% and finish at an all-time high. That marked the fourth consecutive weekly gain for the index. Still, volume on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was light and at its lowest weekly total since Christmas, an obviously quiet trading week. The Nasdaq was up 1.5% and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) added 2.4%. In just four weeks, the SPX has jumped 12.5%, the Nasdaq 18.6%, and the QQQ 18%. That is the strongest four weeks for the SPX since May 2025, and the best stretch for the Nasdaq and QQQ since stocks were coming out of COVID-19. Excluding the pandemic, it was the best four weeks for the Nasdaq and QQQ since March 2009.