Chart of the Day: 2023 is not 2022

More new highs than new lows as we move into the new year

16 days into 2023 and we have had 16 days with new highs exceeding new lows on the NYSE+NASDAQ. We didn’t record the 16th day of more new highs than new lows in 2022 until mid-November.

Why it matters: This is less about the importance of how a year begins and more about adapting to a change in environment. More stocks making new highs than new lows is usually evidence of accumulating strength in equities. We can have concerns about recessions and qualms about longer-term trends, but when more stocks are making new highs than new lows, the equity market indexes are not usually going down. And note, it’s not the quantity of highs and lows that matters - it’s the persistence of highs > lows. As long as we are seeing that, 2023 is not likely to look like 2022.