Another odd one

From March through June, then again in October through November, breadth was pristine. We were seeing exceptionally broad participation, with positive thrusts on a historic scale. That all bodes well for future returns, and still does. What we don't like is "odd" and we're starting to see a little of that now. Small-cap stocks drive a large part of the breadth figures on the NYSE, so when an index like the Russell 2000 does well, breadth figures are good. Today was a major exception. The Russell was up around 1%, and yet NYSE Up Issues and Up Volume were well below 50%. Since 1979, the only times this has triggered when stocks were anywhere near a high was in 2000 and 2007. We wouldn't put a lot of weight on this yet, but if we start to see clusters of oddities like this, it will quickly raise a yellow flag.