S&P 500, Nasdaq gain despite soundly bearish market breadth

While the S&P 500 gained 0.1% and Nasdaq Composite tacked on 0.3% in morning trading Thursday, market internals are painting a clearly bearish picture. The number of stocks losing ground outnumbered advancers 2,054 to 855 on the NYSE and 2,636 to 1,069 on the Nasdaq. In addition, volume in declining stocks made up 85.4% of total volume on the Big Board and 61.6% of total volume on the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 26 points, or 0.1%, with 16 of 30 components losing ground, while the Russell 2000 index of small-capitalization stocks shed 1.4%.

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