A Weekly Record of How Many Stocks Rose, How Many Fell, and What the Averages Did Not Say
Vol. I · No. 12March 20, 2026
The Trend of the Market
S. & P. 500 Loses 1.9 Per Cent on the Week—Cumulative Advance-Decline Line 16,279 Issues Below February Peak—New Lows Exceed New Highs Second Week—The Week’s Count Narrow
By the Editor
The S. & P. 500 finished the week at 6,506.48, down 1.90 per cent, 6.6 per cent below its high for the year of 6,966.28, set Jan. 9. The cumulative advance-decline line made its peak on February 20 at 6,585. In the four weeks since, it has given back 16,279 issues, and it now stands at −9,694, below its starting point.
The week’s own count was narrow: 2,689 issues advanced and 8,037 declined. Breadth confirmed the week’s decline.
New Lows
New lows have outnumbered new highs in each of the last two weeks. This week the exchanges recorded 462 new highs against 1,244 new lows. The ten-week average of issues advancing is 44.0 per cent, down from 49.1 a week ago.
Market Charts
The Price of the Market Against the Count of the Market
— Weekly, January 2, 2026 – March 20, 2026 —
Fig. 1.—S. & P. 500 weekly close, drawn as an open ribbon (above), and the cumulative advance-decline line for all U.S. exchanges (below), with readings under zero on the stippled ground, January 2, 2026 to March 20, 2026. Since February 20 the index has lost 5.8 per cent while the line has fallen 16,279 issues.
Per Cent of Issues Advancing
Fig. 2.—Weekly share of issues that advanced, measured from 50 per cent. Hatched bars mark up weeks for the average stock, open bars on the stippled ground mark down weeks. The heavy line is the ten-week average.
New Highs Less New Lows
Fig. 3.—Weekly new 52-week highs minus new lows, all exchanges. Below the line every week since March 13. The heavy line is the four-week average.
MARKET STATISTICS
S. & P. 500
Advances & Declines
New
Close
Change
Net
Cumulative
Pct. Adv.
Highs
Lows
Tone
The last eight weeks. Tone compares the week’s breadth with the week’s price move. Back numbers for all 12 weeks since January 2, 2026 are on file.
From the Editor
Why We Call It the Count of the Market
A Note on Col. Leonard P. Ayres, 1879–1946, and the Daily Tally He Began
Leonard Ayres served as chief statistician of the Army in the First World War. He later became vice president and economist of the Cleveland Trust Company, where he wrote its monthly Business Bulletin. With his assistant, James F. Hughes, he kept a daily tally of how many stocks rose and how many fell. He called it the count of the market.
“I think this will make an interesting stock market statistic.”AYRES TO HUGHES, AS HUGHES RECALLED IT IN 1951
The average tells you how far the market moved. The count tells you how many stocks went along. This publication keeps that count every week, in the manner Ayres began it.