A Main Street Independent framework specification. This is the discipline behind the publication’s daily market recap — published so the recaps can be inspected rather than taken on trust. CC0 — copy, adapt, and reuse it freely.
The job, in one line
Report what the market did at the close, in numbers, and label each instrument’s condition with a fixed rule — without ever claiming why it moved.
What this recap refuses to do
Most market coverage spends its words on a story: stocks fell because of the Fed; the dollar rose on trade news. We don’t, because that link is mostly guesswork dressed up as explanation. This recap holds to four rules:
- No reasons. We never attribute a move to a cause or a news event.
- No forecasts. Every label describes the data as it stands today. We never say what comes next.
- No sentiment. We don’t tell you how investors “feel.”
- No money-flow claims. Our data cannot measure fund flows honestly, so we don’t pretend to.
What’s left is the part that’s actually true: the prices, the measured changes, and a consistent classification of each instrument’s position relative to its own history.
What we report every day
- The Tape — the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq Composite, and Russell 2000.
- Rates and the Curve — the 2-, 10-, and 30-year Treasury yields, the day’s change in basis points, and the 2s10s spread.
- The Dollar — its move against the euro and the yen.
- Sectors — the eleven equity sectors, ranked by the day’s move.
- Movers and Breadth — across Main Street Independent’s tracked universe of large-cap U.S. stocks.
The rules, defined
Trend (the moving-average matrix)
Each instrument is placed by where its last price sits relative to its own 50-day and 200-day moving averages — the average closing price over the last 50 and 200 trading days.
| Above the 200-day | Below the 200-day | |
|---|---|---|
| Above the 50-day | Uptrend | Recovery (unconfirmed) |
| Below the 50-day | Pullback | Downtrend |
- Uptrend — above both averages.
- Pullback — below the 50-day but still above the 200-day: a dip inside a longer uptrend.
- Recovery — back above the 50-day but still below the 200-day: an unconfirmed turn.
- Downtrend — below both.
Structure is a second, slower reading: when the 50-day average is itself above the 200-day, we call it bullish structure (a “golden cross” regime); below, bearish structure (a “death cross” regime). When the two averages actually cross within the last ten sessions, we flag it.
These are definitions, not predictions — a description of where price sits, nothing more.
vs 50-day / vs 200-day
How far the last price sits above (+) or below (−) each average, in percent. A large gap means a stretched move — the kind that historically tends to snap back toward the average, though we make no claim about when.
Year-to-date and 12-month
- YTD — change since the last close of the previous calendar year.
- 12-mo — change since the same date one year ago.
52-week range
The lowest and highest close of the past year, and how far below the high the price now sits. A close within half a percent of the extreme is reported as a new 52-week high or low.
The Treasury curve
We report each yield and its day-over-day change in basis points (one basis point = 0.01 percentage point). The 2s10s spread is the 10-year yield minus the 2-year. We describe its shape mechanically — inverted (below zero), flat (under a quarter point), or positively sloped — and never attach a prediction to it.
The dollar
Reported from the dollar’s point of view against the euro and the yen, with the same above/below-average trend reading as equities. Currencies have no meaningful trading volume, so there is no money-flow reading here — only price and trend.
Sectors
The eleven equity sectors, ranked by the day’s percentage move. Sectors get a move, not a trend label — our data plan does not carry a single tradable sector series we can put a moving average on, so we report which led and which lagged, and how many finished higher, but we do not call a sector an “uptrend.”
Movers
Within the tracked large-cap universe: the biggest one-day gainers and decliners, and the names sitting furthest above and below their own 50-day average (the most stretched). We rank within a curated universe rather than the whole market so the list isn’t dominated by thinly traded micro-caps.
Breadth
Simple counts across the tracked universe: how many names rose versus fell, how many are above their 50-day and 200-day averages, and how many are at a new 52-week high or low. Breadth is the closest honest read of how broad a day’s move was — but it covers the tracked universe, not the entire market.
The data
Prices, the Treasury curve, sector moves, and history come from Financial Modeling Prep, taken after the U.S. close. The moving averages, year-to-date and 12-month figures, crosses, streaks, and breadth counts are computed by Main Street Independent from that data. The recap runs once per trading weekday; on market holidays it simply does not publish.
Not investment advice
This is a data report and a fixed classification scheme. It is not investment advice, a recommendation, or a forecast, and nothing in it should be relied on for any financial decision.