Looking at relative strength changes really helps to drive home underlying themes in the market. As I have been saying for several weeks, there are only a few sectors that have been going up — most sectors have been just treading water — and some sectors are completely falling apart.

Here are some recent relative strength changes, you tell me if you can spot the underlying themes:
New relative strength buy signals: Dominion Resources, Cross Timbers, Cal Dive International, Natural Gas and Worthington Industries (a steel stock).
New relative strength sell signals: Bank of America, more local and regional banks (too many to list), Enstar and Fortis (insurance companies), Black & Decker and Pier One Imports.

Remember that relative strength signals tend to last approximately two years (some longer, some shorter). By the look of things, I think this may be round two for the financial stocks (banks, brokers, insurance companies). And it doesn’t look like oil and other commodities are done yet either.