Gains in the U.S. stock market this year have been concentrated among a handful of immensely valuable tech companies. Technology and communications services stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500 are up more than 30 percent this year to date. Consumer discretionary stocks are up this year as well — by around 18 percent — but all of the other eight S&P 500 sectors are down. What is the hyper-narrow stock market advance telling us about prospects for the economy, and should we pay attention? The pessimistic take is that it’s unhealthy for a market — and an economy — when all the good news is concentrated in a handful of sectors.

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Persons: “, ” JoAnne Feeney, ” Mona Mahajan, Edward Jones Organizations: Technology, Advisors Capital Management Locations: U.S, Ridgewood, N.J