MW More than half of the S&P 500 industry sectors are in correction territory. How much longer until the index itself succumbs?

By Christine Idzelis

The Dow, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 are already there

A bruising March has left the S&P 500 close to correction territory.

The S&P 500's slide in March has the widely followed U.S. equities benchmark approaching correction territory, after more than half of the index's industries already landed there.

The U.S. stock market has suffered steep losses this month amid the Iran conflict and on related worries over high oil prices, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA falling into correction territory on Friday. That's just a day after the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP entered a correction, defined as a drop of at least 10% from a recent peak.

And the small-cap Russell 2000 RUT landed in correction territory earlier this month.

The S&P 500 SPX, whose biggest industry sector is technology, is in danger of being next. The index dropped a sharp 1.7% on Friday to end 8.7% below its record close on Jan. 27, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Bespoke Investment Group looked under the hood of the S&P 500 and into the performance of the index's 25 industry groups.

During the past week, 16 of them finished at least 10% below their 52-week intraday highs, according to Bespoke Investment Group. And four of those - real-estate management, software, autos and parts , and commercial services - have tumbled at least 20%, putting them in bear-market territory, Bespoke said in a note emailed to MarketWatch on Friday.

The chart below captures their performance.

BESPOKE INVESTMENT GROUP

Real-estate management saw the biggest plunge among the industries, recently losing 35% of its value from its 52-week high, the chart shows. But the decline in software stocks had a bigger impact on the index, given the sector's larger weighting. The industry group was down by "nearly a third," Bespoke said.

As for the S&P 500's 11 sectors, all but energy are in the red so far in March. Energy ended Friday on pace for a monthly gain of 12.5%, as U.S. oil prices hovered around $100 a barrel, according to FactSet data.

-Christine Idzelis

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March 27, 2026 17:46 ET (21:46 GMT)

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