S&P 500 Velocity Seen in Best Defensive Rally Since 2011

American companies with earnings least tied to the economy are beating so-called cyclical shares by the widest margin since August 2011, a sign that almost always means a bull market will accelerate.

Defensive shares such as Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble Co. have rallied 19 percent on average in 2013, the best start since 1991, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Defensives exceeded cyclical stocks by more than 8 percentage points last month, the most in 20 months, JPMorgan Chase & Co. data show. As long as the economy isn’t shrinking, gaps of that size have presaged rallies of 10 percent in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index since 1973, according to JPMorgan.