Stocks look likely to revisit their 2022 low, but SVB's failure or a banking crisis won't be the cause.

The bear market in U.S. stocks will last longer than three more months. That’s the message being sent from the market’s sector relative strength rankings. Over the final three months of past bear markets, there was a distinct pattern to those rankings. Today’s trailing three-month sector ranking bears no resemblance to that pattern.

This puts the drama surrounding the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank SIVB in a different light. If the bear market does continue, many will be inclined to blame the banking crisis. But the financial…