The S&P 500 recently notched a winning streak of week-over-week gains for seven consecutive weeks, a rare technical market signal that points to massive potential gains over the next twelve months.
Historic Bullish Signal
Historical data shows that in the last three instances this setup occurred—in December 2023, March 1998, and June 1997—the index surged 28.2%, 21.1%, and 23.0% over the following year, respectively.
On average, the S&P 500 advances a robust 15.7% a full 52 weeks after flashing this rare seven-week signal. According to Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist at Carson Group, the recent seven-week streak where the index rose more than 10% is exceptionally powerful.
“The last three times we had a 7-week win streak for the S&P 500 that was up more than 10% saw stocks up more than 20% a year later each time,” Detrick noted.
Highlighting the 100% historical win rate of this technical setup, he added, “In fact, never lower a year later looking at all seven prior instances. I’d file this in the good news file.”
Snapping The One-Percent Streak
Despite the strong setup, the market did experience a minor technical pullback at the end of last week. On Friday, the S&P 500 fell 1.2%, after hitting a record on Thursday. However, this decline only came after an exhausting stretch of eight consecutive 1% gains without a single 1% decline.
Addressing the Friday drop, Detrick offered a measured, grounded perspective. “This was one of the longest streaks in history, so a bad day eventually was likely,” he explained, contextualizing the temporary red day against a broader backdrop of intense momentum.
‘Perfectly Normal’ Continued Strength
This recent price action builds on aggressive buying seen earlier in 2026. Following a massive 9.8% 10-day surge ending in mid-April, Detrick stated that continued strong performance would be “perfectly normal.”
Currently, the index sits up 8.02% year-to-date. While that figure is “about average” for most years, Detrick pointed out a major quirk in the data.
“Average isn’t so average when it comes to investing.” Historically, the S&P 500 has only finished the full calendar year between 8% and 10% four times, suggesting the current market action is anything but ordinary.
How Have Markets Performed In 2026?
The S&P 500 index has advanced 8.02% year-to-date. Similarly, the Nasdaq Composite index was up 12.87%, and the Dow Jones gained 2.36% YTD.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100, respectively, closed lower on Friday. The SPY was down 1.20% at $739,17, while the QQQ declined 1.51% to $708,93.
Meanwhile, Dow tracker, State Street SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (NYSE:DIA), fell 1.03% to close at $495.37 on Friday.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
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