How Far Is the Average Stock From Its 52-Week High?

The S&P 500 is down just under 7% from its 52-week high, but how far is the average stock from its own 52-week highs? Looking at each of the stocks in the S&P 500, we calculated how much the average stock is down from its own 52-week high and grouped them by sector. For the S&P 500 as a whole, the average stock is down 15.2% from its 52-week high. Sectors where stocks have held up better than the S&P 500 as a whole include defensives such as Utilities, Consumer Staples, and Health Care. At the same time, however, cyclical sectors such as Energy and Consumer Discretionary have also held up better that the market as a whole.

In a surprise to nobody, the average Financial sector stock is down more than 15.2% from its 52-week high. What may be surprising to some, however, is that Financials (-17.8%) aren't down the most. The average stock in the Telecom Services sector is currently down 18.8% from its 52-week high, but even that is not the worst. Surprisingly, the average stock in the Technology sector is down more than 20% from its 52-week high. Even though there have been some notable winners in the sector (AAPL, IBM, GOOG, etc), there have also been a number of losers. Stocks like Akamai (AKAM), Monster (MWW), JDS Uniphase (JDSU), MEMC Electronics (WFR), and Tellabs (TLAB) are all down more than 50% from their respective highs.