Almost half of S&P 500 stocks in a bear market

By Noel Randewich

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The S&P 500 is not yet in a bear market, but nearly half of its components are.

Hurt by worries about global growth, the S&P 500 <.SPX> on Monday fell 0.25 percent, putting the benchmark index on track for its lowest close since May and stirring fears that a decade-old Wall Street rally may be over. Earlier in the session, the index was down as much as 1.9 percent.

The S&P 500 index has been in a correction since October, defined by many investors as a drop of 10 percent or more from a high. It has not crossed the 20 percent threshold, widely viewed as the definition of a bear market.

However, 245 stocks in the S&P 500 – 49 percent of its components – on Monday had fallen 20 percent or more from their 52-week highs. Another 127 S&P 500 stocks had fallen 10 percent or more from their 52-week highs, but less than 20 percent.

(Graphic: Half of S&P 500 stocks in bear market – https://tmsnrt.rs/2zOJImb)

The index on Monday was down about 11 percent from its Sept. 20 record high close.

Apple Inc , until recently Wall Street’s most valuable company and the largest component of the S&P 500, has declined 27 percent from its record high on Oct. 3, accelerating the index’s losses as investors fret over cooling demand for iPhones.

Pessimism has spread beyond the S&P 500 to smaller companies across the U.S. stock market, with hundreds of stocks hitting lows for the year on a daily basis in recent sessions.

(Graphic: Stocks hitting 52-week lows – https://tmsnrt.rs/2SBWw6w)

S&P 500 components deepest in bear market territory include Nektar Therapeutics , Coty Inc and General Electric Co , each down more than 60 percent from its 52-week high.

Microsoft Corp , which in late November dethroned Apple as Wall Street’s largest company, is down 8 percent from its Oct. 3 record high.

(Graphic: Bottom 10 S&P 500 stocks relative to 52-week highs – https://tmsnrt.rs/2SK1ZZh)

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Richard Chang)