NEW YORK, Aug. 25 -- The benchmark for the American semiconductor industry is 21.8 per cent below its 52-week high, which is a bear market. The S&P 500 is 2.0 per cent below its record.

Both of those sentences describe Monday, August 24, 2026. Holding them together is the only way to understand what the American equity market is currently doing, and it is not what the technology headlines suggest.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.19 per cent to 7,660.12 in the early afternoon in New York. That is a rounding error on an index that has spent the year making highs. Underneath it, six of the eleven sectors were higher on the day, and the ones leading were the defensive ones: consumer staples, financials, communication services and utilities.

This is ...