Bullish Sign for S&P Flashes With More Stocks Shouldering Rally

There are plenty of reasons to doubt the stock market’s recent advance — trade-deal progress is scant, economic data is souring and outlooks from US firms are the worst in years. In spite all of that, one measure, at least, suggests that investor confidence is growing in companies both big and small.

An equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 Index, which makes no distinction between the market value of a behemoth like Amazon.com Inc. and relative minnow like Axon Enterprise Inc., has outperformed the standard cap-weighted S&P 500 for six consecutive sessions. It’s the longest streak of outperformance since January 2023, and signals optimism the ability of a larger swath of companies to drive earnings, the economy, and of course, the stock market.