Millionaire households doubled in 15 years; breadth weakens

At 5:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, the live broadcast began, with hosts Downtown Josh Brown and Michael Batnick introducing the show and its guests.

Josh Brown was 34 when the premiere aired in October 2011 and is 49 now.

He rang the New York Stock Exchange opening bell to mark the anniversary.

"Some days it feels like 15 years, and some days it feels like 5 years," Brown said.

Tech's weight in the S&P 500 is now 37%, versus about 19-20% in 2011, and it is above the dot-com peak of 34%.

Adding communication services would push the combined share to roughly half the market.

Energy fell from 12% of the index in 2011 to about 2%, now comparable to real estate and utilities.

Brown cautioned that energy rallies could run further and longer than expected.

The share of Americans owning stock was 57% in 2011, fell to 52% in 2013-2016, rebounded to 58% by 2022, and peaked near 62% in 2024-2025.

Federal Reserve data shows 58% of families held stock as of 2022.

The top 1% of households own half of all stock, while the bottom 50% own about 1%.

"We need more participation in this economic miracle that has set America apart from the rest of the world." Trump accounts are meant to address that gap, Brown argued.

Batnick is not a dip buyer here.

"First off, it's a failure at the 50-day and then it's a violation below the 200-day. I'm not a dip buyer here," Batnick said.

The equal-weight index is only 4.5% below its all-time high, while the S&P 500 is at a record.

The top five stocks are roughly equal in market cap to the bottom 436.

Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson says risk has been taken out of most stocks before earnings season, while Denise Chisum sees strong forward returns after similarly weak three-month readings.

DRAM is down about 30% from its June 2026 high while the S&P 500 sits at a high.

The S&P has gone 53 trading sessions without a 1% decline, the longest stretch since January 2020, according to Bloomberg's Jessica Manton.

Brown's base case is a shakeout in October, and he thinks today's bank reaction may be part of it.

Brown attributes part of the consumer slump to a crowded lunch market, which he links to continued work-from-home.

Many new restaurant options and health-conscious habits are shifting spending.

Diners now have many new restaurants to choose from, and people are more health conscious, Brown noted.

The bleak picture is not entirely bad, according to Brown.

Brown defines glamour IPOs as stories built on charismatic founders addressing industry wrongs.

Bumble's concept let women initiate contact, but its business proved weaker than the idea.

Bumble opened up 77% on its IPO date, and the stock later fell more than 90%, from over $80 to around $2 a share.

Bumble is now being acquired at about $6 a share, and Brown's takeaway is to avoid glamour IPOs even when you love the concept.

Amazon has lagged the S&P 500 since 2019 and fell about 50% in 2022, a drop comparable to peers such as Nvidia, Meta and Netflix.

AWS reaccelerated after a long slowdown, and the data center business is growing strongly.

Amazon's retail operations are a low-margin fight, according to Batnick, while Brown asked whether a separate AWS listing would create a hot stock.

At about 14 times earnings, the stock is priced at a level Batnick described as worth noting.