The indices were hit hard this third week in January. The S&P500 fell -5.41 percent between the last two Fridays; the NASDAQ lost -4.1 percent and the DJIA dropped -4.02 percent. Moreover, todays Friday to Friday loss not only follows last weeks decline: this is the fourth such week in a row. These averages have failed to score a week over week advance since
Such a long negative run is not usual at all. In the 395 weeks since January 2000, there have been only 17 four negative weeks runs for the DJIA; and the last string occurred on July 2004. The S&P500s record is similar, with 18 sets of four week declines. None of these took place during the month of January. The NASDAQ has a more frequent record: 26 four week declines, with the last one on December 2005.
The magnitude of this weeks decline should be noted as well: only five percent of the DJIA and the S&P500 weekly losses, since 1950, have exceeded their turn down this week. The NASDAQ decrease is somewhat better, in the 10th percentile.
The data for five straight negative weeks reveals that both the DJIA and the S&P500 have ten such runs since 2000, while the NASDAQ has eleven. All of these took place before July 2004.