Breadth Brief

Price Action: QQQ added 0.63% on Friday to close at 721.45, up 0.92% on the week. The internal structure beneath that gain tells a different story than the price does.

Absolute Breadth: Both planes sit deep in Bear Liquidation. EW holds 11.1% bullish, MCW sits at 22.6%. Fewer than one in four dollars in this index is in a confirmed uptrend. The Soldiers and the Generals are fighting the same losing battle, just at different depths.

Distortion Context: The spread is 11.5%, a Selective Strength reading, holding essentially flat from the previous close (11.8%). The heavyweights are holding up fractionally better than the field below them, giving the price a cushion the average stock doesn't have.

Weekly Context: The weekly frame contradicts the daily one. Both EW (30.2%) and MCW (46.1%) sit in Bull Consolidation, with a Mega-Cap Illusion spread of 15.9%, up slightly from 15.4%. Daily Bear Liquidation nested inside weekly Bull Consolidation means the short-term damage hasn't broken the longer-term frame yet.

Price Action: SPY barely moved, closing at 761.69, up 0.13% on Friday and down 0.09% on the week. Flatlined price, far less stable breadth underneath.

Absolute Breadth: EW dropped to 10.6%, down from 11.5%. MCW fell to 22.0% from 24.1%. Both planes deteriorated together inside Bear Liquidation. Across 500 stocks, this is broad economy-wide weakness, not a concentrated tech story.

Distortion Context: The spread is 11.4%, Selective Strength, narrowing slightly from 12.6% Thursday’s close, driven by MCW falling faster than EW rather than any real improvement. The buying that exists is thin, and it's getting thinner at the top too.

Weekly Context: The weekly SPY structure runs the opposite direction from QQQ's. EW (32.2%) leads MCW (23.7%) by 8.5 points, a Selective Strength reading where the average stock is outpacing the mega-caps. That's a reversal from the daily plane, where MCW leads.