The S&P 500 closed higher Friday. Tech stocks helped. This counts as a winning week if you grade on the same curve used for participation trophies.
A couple Big Tech names did the heavy lifting. The other 498 stocks presumably showed up and breathed. That's how indexes work. Two companies with market caps larger than entire European countries go up half a percent and suddenly everyone who bought SOXL at the top gets to tweet about their winning week.
Technical analysts have been calling for this move since it happened. The chart showed clear signs of going up right after it went up. The 50-day moving average crossed the thing-that-doesn't-matter indicator at precisely the moment it became irrelevant. Textbook setup.
Retail traders spent Friday afternoon calculating their weekly returns. They opened their brokerage apps. They closed them. They opened them again. Forty-seven times. The S&P gained 0.8% for the week. Their portfolios moved in ways that defied physics and several laws of mathematics.
Big Tech saved the index because that's what Big Tech does now. The market cap weight of the top seven companies means they could sneeze and the S&P would gap up. The remaining 493 companies exist to provide diversification theater. They're the stock market equivalent of decorative pillows. Technically part of the setup but nobody's sure why.
Friday's close marked a winning week. Wall Street will spend Monday explaining why this was obvious and Tuesday explaining why the reversal was also obvious. The headlines will change. The technical levels will adjust. Retail traders will keep checking their phones every eleven minutes like they're waiting for a text from someone who's never going to call back.
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