NASDAQ Down Again

January 8, 2008

Yes, this is the same headline as yesterday, and now this index has dropped for the eight session in a row. While this long downward string occurred twice in 2006, itÂ’s necessary to go all the way back to 1974 to find a similar long decline.

November 1984 is the last time the NASDAQ fell nine days in a row; and there have been only seven other such long declines.

Finally, a word about January gains and losses. The record shows that the total gains and total losses do not follow a substantial pattern of increases. Instead each of these three indices has its own pattern: the S&P500 scored January increases in only 27 years while it declined in 31 of the past 58 years. Similarly, the NASDAQ has 17 declines but just 16 gains since 1976. The DJIA, though, has a different profile, with 33 increases and just 25 declines in the month of January since 1950. See the table below.

january-percent-changes.gif

DJIA - 1.87 percent

NASDAQ - 2.36 percent

S&P500 - 1.85 percent

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