Market snapshot
In brief
The story
The move. The Optical Interconnect basket, four names, finished the week +13.6% against the S&P, a +1.3 z reading and the 91st percentile of the trailing year. Coherent +15%, Corning +14% and Ciena +10% account for 80% of it, all of it Technology. The same two names top the 22-name AI Infrastructure Leaders basket, +6.5% vs the S&P on the week, alongside AMD +13%.
The books. Quality's long-short spread is -3.5% vs the S&P over 20 sessions, z -2.2 and the 3rd percentile of the trailing year, in the eighth session of the move. Moderna +126% in the short leg is the largest single contributor at -1.26pp; on the long side Howmet -19%, TJX -18%, Autodesk -18% and Lululemon -17% each cost about 0.2pp. Healthcare -1.55pp and Industrials -1.15pp lead by sector. The spread's 20-day realized vol, 11.2%, is at the 99th percentile of the trailing year. In the 3,000-name universe quality is +0.6% on the week, +1.3σ.
The market. The S&P closed at 7,655.50, +0.84% on the day (z +1.1), with the VIX down 11.2% to 15.84; the week finished -1.1% and 20 sessions -1.7%. Breadth is thin: 39% of the index sits above its 50-day average against 69% a month ago, a 20-session change at the 10th percentile since 2020, while 59% are above the 200-day. Michigan sentiment printed 47.8 against 51 expected; August CPI matched at 3.4% year on year, with core month on month 0.3% versus 0.2% expected. Elsewhere, Housing Chain is -7.9% vs the S&P over 20 sessions, led by Builders FirstSource -18%, and Crypto Financialization is -6.3% on the week with Robinhood -10% and Coinbase -9%.
Who did it · 80% of the move in these names
| Name | Weight | 5d | Contrib |
|---|---|---|---|
| COHR Coherent, Inc. | 25.0% | +15% | +4.15pp |
| GLW Corning Inc. | 25.0% | +14% | +3.77pp |
| CIEN Ciena Corporation | 25.0% | +10% | +2.80pp |
By sector: Technology added 13.3pp.
The board · factors vs S&P 500, relative return with z vs the trailing year, sorted by the week
| Factor | 1D | 5D | 20D | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S&P 500 (computed) absolute | +0.9% +1.1σ | -1.1% -0.9σ | -1.7% -1.0σ | +12.4% |
| Momentum | +0.3% +0.2σ | +2.7% +1.2σ | -0.0% -0.3σ | +16.6% |
| High beta | +0.5% +0.4σ | +2.7% +0.9σ | -0.4% -0.4σ | +16.0% |
| Quality | +0.2% +0.5σ | +0.2% +0.2σ | -1.0% -0.8σ | +3.7% |
| Value | -0.2% -0.3σ | +0.0% -0.1σ | +1.2% +0.2σ | +6.3% |
| Low volatility | -0.6% -0.5σ | -0.7% -0.2σ | -0.1% +0.2σ | -5.8% |
| Dividend yield | -0.4% -0.4σ | -0.9% -0.4σ | -0.2% -0.1σ | +4.8% |
| Size | -0.2% -0.2σ | -2.2% -1.1σ | -2.9% -0.8σ | -0.1% |
Also
- Michigan Consumer Sentiment 47.8 (51 expected)
- Inflation Rate YoY 3.4% (3.4% expected)
- Reported today: KR beat (1.09 vs 1.06)
- Travel & Experiences basket -10.2% vs S&P over 20 sessions
- Defense & Aerospace basket -9.6% vs S&P over 20 sessions
- The four reasons stocks are about to embark on a ‘face-ripper rally' — MarketWatch
- Stock Futures Nudge Up, Yields Slip, But Markets Remain on Edge — WSJ
Breadth, leadership, revisions, realized vol and the baskets, every day: the dashboard. Explore correlations →. Headlines are quoted from their publishers for context.
The narrative in this brief is drafted by an AI model from Factor Watch's computed data and checked against it, but it can still be wrong — verify anything before you act on it.