Is this rally too weak?
The S&P 500 rallied more than 2% on Thursday, which is a decently large 1 day rally that usually elicits stronger breadth. Instead, only 59% of NYSE issues rallied along with the S&P. Is this a sign of weak breadth?
Not entirely. When this happened in the past, the S&P had a greater than average tendency to rally over the next few weeks and months. On a longer term basis, this wasn't always bullish since many of the historical cases occurred at the market's peak in 2000.
One could argue that the market environment right now is very different from 2000. We're in a recession today, whereas a recession hadn't started in 2000. Moreover, stocks are significantly below all-time highs today, whereas stocks were near all-time highs in 2000.
So if we only look at the cases in which the S&P 500 was in bear market territory (more than -20% below a 1 year high)...
This happened near the market's bottom in 1962 and 1987. Both cases saw the S&P 500 experience more short term volatility (swings up and down) before the S&P 500 rallied significantly in the coming months.