US industrial stocks flash technical warnings after 10% slide

The S&P 500 Industrials Index has dropped 6.1% from its record high set on Aug. 14, and the technical picture is getting uglier by the day. The index has sliced through both its 50-day and 100-day moving averages, with the 200-day average sitting roughly 2.5% lower, a level that, if breached, tends to turn casual concern into full-blown anxiety. The damage across big-name industrials GE Vernova and Eaton have each fallen at least 9% since mid-August. Caterpillar, often viewed as a bellwether for global economic activity, is down roughly 5% in the same window. GE Aerospace and RTX have faced similar pressure. Then there’s Honeywell, which has become something of a cautionary tale. The diversified industrial giant has posted a year-to-date loss of 47.1%, a stunning figure for a company of its size and pedigree. Manufacturing data adds fuel to the fire August’s manufacturing output fell 0.3% during the month, the first decline since October 2025, snapping a streak of seven consecutive months of growth. Wall Street had been expecting a 0.3% increase, so the actual print represented a meaningful miss in both direction and magnitude. That last point is particularly relevant for names...