Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, dismissed concerns about stock market breadth in a post on X on Friday, October 9, 2026. He stated, "The Stock Market Is Currently Out of Breadth But It's No Reason to Worry. new from me on the latest worry being hurled at investors from the columnist class and what they aren't telling you: 1) over past 100 years only 4% of stocks generated all net US market-wealth creation w/ half of cos lagging treasuries = lack of breadth has always been a thing 2) The big cos doing all the heavy lifting are not normal big cos, they are like small countries- each of them having acquired hundreds of companies. Microsoft and Google have each acquired 270(!) companies. I don't think they enforce anti-trust laws anymore. So you have prob should think about the Mag 7 as the Mag 700. In that sense, there are hundreds of companies leading the 'breadthless' S&P 500 right now. Read the full note on BI ETF<GO>."
The S&P 500 is currently trading at $7,765, down 0.5% today. Market breadth, or the number of stocks participating in a market advance, has been a recurring topic among investors and analysts. Recent Gokhshtein Media coverage has highlighted various aspects of the ETF market, including the approval of Bitcoin and Ether ETFs in Thailand and outflows from a Grayscale Zcash ETF.
Balchunas's view implies that the concentration of market gains among a few large companies is not a new phenomenon and should not be a cause for investor alarm. He suggests that the sheer number of acquisitions by these dominant firms means they effectively represent a broader collection of businesses, challenging the traditional interpretation of market breadth.
