Bear market breakers

With the push in small-cap stocks, breadth across the exchanges has improved dramatically this week. On Wednesday, more than 12% of securities on the NYSE and Nasdaq managed to hit a 52-week high, the most in more than 2 years. There have been five other times it has crossed this threshold after at least 2 years - following the ends of bear markets in 1970, 1987, 1994, 2002, and 2008. A year later, the S&P 500 was higher by an average of more than 12%. We'll have more details about the implications on Friday. On the Nasdaq alone, more than 14% of issues hit a new high on Thursday, the most in 3 years.