You might be shocked by how many stocks are in a bear market right now

By Philip van Doorn and Joseph Adinolfi

Here's how investors can capitalize on the S&P 500's bad breadth

The S&P 500 has risen 15% over the past year, but 44% of its component stocks are down at least 20% from their 52-week highs.

The S&P 500 was trading within 2 percentage points of its record closing high on Tuesday. But if you dig a bit deeper, things are looking far less rosy.

While strong performance from a minority of highflying artificial-intelligence names has helped to limit losses at the index level, a MarketWatch analysis found that more than 40% of stocks in the index were trading at least 20% below their 52-week highs as of Monday's close. That means nearly half of the constituents in the S&P 500 are technically trading in bear-market territory, as the gap between the stock market's winners and losers has continued to widen.

Nearly half of the stocks in the S&P 500 are in bear-market territory.

By some measures, the number of stocks helping to drive the S&P 500 higher hasn't been this low since around the peak of the dot-com bubble. Other indicators put this at the weakest breadth since the spring 2025 stock-market tariff tantrum. Only then, the index was much lower than it is today.

Selloffs can present an opportunity for investors, and those worried that the AI trade might be due for a painful reversal can simply rotate some of their cash into corners of the market that have been hard-hit lately. There are plenty of opportunities to choose from, including restaurants, biotech firms, professional-services companies and some software names.

Below, MarketWatch has prepared a couple of screens that might help investors identify potential bargains.

Biggest losers

As of Monday's close, 17 stocks in the S&P 500 were down by 50%, or more, from their 52-week intraday high.

 
Company                                    Decline from 52-week high  Sept. 28 closing price  52-week intraday high Date of 52-week intraday high 
CoStar Group                                                  -68.3%                  $27.02                 $85.24          10/06/2025 
Fiserv                                                        -64.8%                  $46.02                $130.64          09/29/2025 
Insulet                                                       -62.5%                 $133.11                $354.88          11/20/2025 
Intuit                                                        -61.7%                 $269.40                $703.96          09/29/2025 
Charter Communications                                        -61.0%                 $111.40                $285.82          09/30/2025 
Oracle                                                        -58.9%                 $132.60                $322.54          10/16/2025 
AppLovin                                                      -58.7%                 $308.24                $745.61          09/29/2025 
Boston Scientific                                             -58.2%                  $44.11                $105.65          11/13/2025 
Fair Isaac                                                    -57.9%                 $840.89              $1,998.01          10/02/2025 
Lululemon Athletica                                           -55.5%                 $100.58                $225.98          12/18/2025 
Rollins                                                       -53.7%                  $30.59                 $66.14          02/11/2026 
Pentair                                                       -53.5%                  $53.03                $113.95          10/03/2025 
Nike                                                          -52.7%                  $36.39                 $76.97          10/02/2025 
Coinbase Global                                               -52.3%                 $191.79                $402.16          10/10/2025 
Zoetis                                                        -52.0%                  $71.43                $148.79          10/03/2025 
Albemarle                                                     -51.4%                 $107.39                $221.00          05/07/2026 
Fidelity National Information Services                        -50.4%                  $34.31                 $69.14          10/07/2025 
                                                                                                                                   Source: FactSet 

CoStar (CSGP), which tops the list, is a good example of a business model that some investors believe is threatened by the adoption of generative AI. The company runs an online marketplace for commercial real estate across global developed markets. It also claims to provide more information about the CRE space than any of its competitors.

One clue that the precipitous drop might be getting overdone: The company has continued to report double-digit year-over-year revenue growth. Second-quarter revenue, the most recent data available, was up 18% from the year-earlier quarter.

Poised for a comeback

Wall Street analysts are often accused of having a bullish bias, but their ratings for hard-hit stocks can sometimes offer a helpful starting point. Of the 212 S&P 500 stocks trading in bear-market territory, 63 are of them are rated a buy or the equivalent by at least 75% of analysts polled by FactSet who cover those stocks.

Among these 63 stocks, here are the 20 analysts expect will put in fresh highs over the next 12 months. The list even includes some erstwhile AI darlings, like Broadcom and Vistra.

 
Company                           12-month upside potential implied by price target  Consensus price target  Sept. 28 closing price  Decline from 52-week high  52-week intraday high 
NRG Energy                                                                     100%                 $194.20                  $97.00                     -48.9%                $189.96 
CRH                                                                             60%                 $134.39                  $83.75                     -36.3%                $131.55 
Vistra                                                                          60%                 $221.00                 $138.02                     -36.4%                $217.10 
Broadcom                                                                        53%                 $533.94                 $349.57                     -29.4%                $495.00 
Tapestry                                                                        52%                 $172.61                 $113.45                     -31.2%                $164.80 
Howmet Aerospace                                                                49%                 $340.05                 $228.32                     -26.3%                $310.00 
Uber Technologies                                                               49%                 $101.35                  $68.16                     -32.7%                $101.30 
Boeing                                                                          48%                 $273.21                 $184.39                     -27.5%                $254.35 
Take-Two Interactive Software                                                   46%                 $294.88                 $202.35                     -23.9%                $265.94 
Booking Holdings                                                                46%                 $238.80                 $163.87                     -27.2%                $225.00 
T-Mobile US                                                                     45%                 $241.63                 $166.45                     -30.9%                $240.95 
Qnity Electronics                                                               44%                 $179.88                 $124.91                     -29.5%                $177.28 
United Airlines Holdings                                                        42%                 $158.82                 $111.51                     -19.6%                $138.77 
CBRE Group                                                                      42%                 $185.64                 $130.35                     -25.2%                $174.27 
Monolithic Power Systems                                                        37%               $1,853.36               $1,351.20                     -21.2%              $1,714.09 
Emcor Group                                                                     35%               $1,033.29                 $765.52                     -19.6%                $951.96 
Jabil                                                                           35%                 $429.60                 $318.93                     -25.6%                $428.93 
Synopsys                                                                        34%                 $560.72                 $417.61                     -22.6%                $539.48 
Comfort Systems USA                                                             32%               $2,197.00               $1,658.30                     -20.0%              $2,073.99 
Capital One Financial                                                           32%                 $259.76                 $196.46                     -24.3%                $259.64 
                                                                                                                                                                      Source: FactSet 

Click on the tickers for more about each company.

The S&P 500 SPX was up 12.2% for 2026 through Monday's close and it was up 15.3% over the past 12 months, excluding dividends. That's not too bad when considering that the index has had an average annual return, including reinvested dividends, of 10.4% over the past 30 years, according to FactSet.

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09-29-26 1225ET