S&P 500 Sector Sentiment — 2026-02-20

S&P 500 Sector Sentiment — 2026-02-20

S&P 500 Sector Sentiment — 2026-02-20

Current tone: neutral

Latest score: 52.0/100

Cross-sector dispersion: 98.2 pts

Leadership is rotating across S&P 500 sectors. Scan the Forward return playbook for context, then the Sector map to see what’s leading vs lagging.

Scan the Forward return playbook for context, then the Sector map for leadership and laggards.

Leaders include Energy, Industrials.

Laggards include Consumer Disc., Technology.

Forward return playbook (SPX)

Historical medians and hit ratios from past dates that looked similar to today (conditional on the sentiment regime + a tight score band).

HorizonMedian SPXHit RatioN
1M0.6%60.7%399
3M1.3%62.4%399
6M2.8%71.9%399
12M8.0%77.2%399

Sector map (0=cold, 100=hot)

Leading / Hot

  • Energy: 99.8/100
  • Industrials: 98.7/100
  • Materials: 97.6/100

Lagging / Cold

  • Consumer Disc.: 1.6/100
  • Technology: 2.1/100
  • Financials: 5.4/100

Neutral

  • Real Estate: 96.0/100
  • Consumer Staples: 73.0/100
  • Utilities: 61.9/100
  • Health Care: 18.7/100
  • Comm. Services: 17.6/100

Read-through

  • Higher dispersion usually means stock selection and factor tilts matter more than pure index direction.
  • Use the playbook as a bias check, then size risk around the sector map (leaders vs laggards).

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