Year later, S&P 500 misses new high buzz

A year after the S&P 500 made its last record high of 2130.82, the mood on Wall Street is much the same as it was back on May 21, 2015, when the broad stock market gauge notched its all-time high and traders were subdued rather than celebratory.

Here’s what Gordon Charlop, head of floor operations at the New York Stock Exchange for Rosenblatt Securities told Reuters on the day the market peaked last May: “There is not an underlying sense of ‘Hey we’re ready to bust out.’ It's not as if people are jumping up and down ... .”

Sound familiar.

The sense of a market with little in the way of catalysts to propel it upward remains to this day. And Charlop's analysis was accurate then and rings true today.

After Thursday's 0.4% slide on fears of rising interest rates, the large-company Standard & Poor’s 500 is down 4.3% from its record close. During the past year and since the last peak, six of the index’s 10 major sectors have posted losses, led by a 16.3% dive for the hard-hit energy sector, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Four sectors have posted gains, led by the sector that is deemed “defensive” in nature: utilities. That high-yielding sector known for its plump dividend payouts is up nearly 8% since the market’s last peak.

New highs had become commonplace in 2013 and 2014 and even in 2015, providing investors with a drug-like high. Last year the S&P 500 notched 10 record highs before topping out, following 53 record closes in 2014 and 45 fresh peaks in 2013.

For now, the stock market has gone cold, giving investors an acute case of new-high withdrawals.