Data as-of 2026-07-24 close (Friday settled close).

T and VZ posted the two biggest moves in the sector this week — RSI 49.5 → 69.3 and 49.7 → 64.3, both up sharply on price (T +10.64% over the week, VZ +6.40%) — and XLU climbed hard too, RSI 50.2 → 60.4. That's a genuine defensive bid showing up in telecom and utilities. But the rest of the group didn't follow: WMT, MCD, COST, TGT, HD, and SBUX were all flat-to-down this week, and LOW stayed pinned in a strong-down DC structure. A market-wide regime signal (regime-signals.json) shows defensives outperforming cyclicals by 2.5 percentage points over the past 30 days — this sector's own tracked names only partly confirm that.

Source: defensive.json. Latest bar 2026-07-24 for every name in this cut. Prior scan: 2026-07-17-defensive-scan.

T and VZ had the two biggest moves in the sector this week. T's RSI jumped from 49.5 to 69.3, up 10.64% over the past week (change7d per defensive.json) and now near the overbought threshold — the biggest single move in this cut. VZ moved similarly, RSI 49.7 → 64.3, up 6.40% over the week. XLU also climbed meaningfully, 50.2 → 60.4, +2.48% over the week. Together, telecom and utilities are the two sleeves in this book that are genuinely bid right now.

The market-wide regime signal (regime-signals.json, sector_rs_rotation) shows defensives outperforming cyclicals by 2.5 percentage points over 30 days, driven at the ETF level by healthcare (XLV +6.01%), financials (XLF +4.82%), and utilities (XLU +1.65%) — with the weakest cyclical sleeves being semiconductors (SMH -9.33%) and consumer discretionary (XLY -4.92%). Notably, consumer staples (XLP) sits in that signal's weaker bucket at -0.37% over 30 days, right alongside the cyclical laggards — meaning the aggregate "defensives bidding" read is real at the sector-ETF level, but it isn't showing up name-by-name in the staples/retail names this scan actually tracks.

That gap is visible directly in this table. WMT, MCD, COST, TGT, HD, SBUX, TSN, PPC, and ECL were all roughly flat to modestly lower this week — none of them confirm a defensive bid on their own. WMT is now the sector's only sub-40 print (RSI 38.1, -4.18% over the week), and MCD remains in a strong-down DC structure.

LOW stayed the sector's one clearly broken name. RSI ticked up slightly (41.4 → 44.0) but the trend classifier still reads strong-down DC, with no support shelf identified in the underlying data — a name still without a confirmed floor.

• T had the sector's biggest move. RSI 49.5 → 69.3, +10.64% over the past week — near the overbought threshold for the first time in this cut.
• VZ moved almost as much. RSI 49.7 → 64.3, +6.40% over the past week.
• XLU climbed hard, confirming part of the sector-rotation signal. RSI 50.2 → 60.4, +2.48% over the past week.
• WMT weakened into the sector's only sub-40 print. RSI 46.5 → 38.1, -4.18% over the past week.
• TGT lost its "best continuation" status. RSI 61.4 → 54.6, cooling meaningfully after three scans of extension.
• XLP cooled from its prior read. RSI 55.3 → 50.3, essentially flat on price (-1.24% over the week) — the staples ETF did not confirm the same bid utilities/telecom showed.
• LOW improved only marginally and remains broken. RSI 41.4 → 44.0, still strong-down DC, no support shelf identified.
• MCD, COST, HD, SBUX, ECL, TSN, PPC, HRL all cooled or held roughly flat — no meaningful moves either direction.
• Universe unchanged. Same 15 tickers as the July 17 cut — no entrants or dropouts.

RSI measures how stretched a stock is over the past 14 sessions — under 30 signals oversold, over 70 signals overbought. vs SMA20 is the price gap to the 20-day average. vs VWAP is the premium over the average price paid by current holders — useful for spotting how much of a move is unrealized gain. Trend combines direction/strength with a cross signal: GC (golden cross) is structurally healthier than DC (death cross). A stock posting a big weekly gain while still marked strong-down DC — like T this cycle — is a relief move inside a mixed structure, not an automatically confirmed reversal.

None.

WMT (38.1). The sector's only name in this band — a real decline this week (-4.18%), no reversal signal yet.

• Still soft (RSI 41-48): MCD, LOW, TSN, COST, HD, ECL, SBUX. LOW is the sole clearly broken name (strong-down DC); the rest are flat-to-drifting.
• Basing (RSI 50-55): XLP, PPC, TGT. TGT lost its multi-scan "best continuation" status this week.
• Momentum / confirming the bid: HRL, XLU, VZ, T. XLU, VZ, and T are the three names actually confirming this week's defensive-rotation signal.

• T and VZ both had their best week in a while — does telecom's bid extend, or was this a one-week move that fades?
• The market-wide regime signal shows a broad defensive rotation, but XLP and most individually tracked staples names didn't confirm it this week — does that gap close, or is the aggregate signal missing this book's real composition?
• WMT is now the sector's only sub-40 print after a real decline — does it find a floor, or does the mega-cap retailer keep drifting?
• LOW remains the one clearly broken name — any sign of stabilization, or does strong-down DC keep deepening?

• Tape data (price/RSI/SMA/returns): full-scan pre-computed summaries as of the 2026-07-24 close — defensive.
• Regime context: regime-signals (sector_rs_rotation gauge, state defensives_bidding, band risk_off).