While todays decline is the third negative close in as many days, the DJIA and S&P500 losses were smaller than in the previous two sessions. Only the NASDAQ experienced a deeper drop on Wednesday.
These averages have realized such three days straight declines some 115 times since January 2000. Todays drops are quite close to, and even somewhat smaller than, the median loss on the third day of that string.
The DJIA closed off -.53 percent today, while its median is -.63 percent and the S&P500s drop of -.76 percent is also smaller than its median of -.78 percent. Even the NASDAQs more substantial -1.33 percent loss is below its -1.38 percent median on the third successive down day.
In the past, a fourth consecutive loss occurred fewer times than a positive turn around after three losses for both the DJIA and S&P500. The ratio is 63 gains to 49 losses for the former index and 71 gains to 44 losses for the latter. The NASDAQ, however, has a history of nearly equal number of up and down days. That ratio is 59 losses to 58 gains.
There have been more negative days than positive closes in these 24 trading days of 2008. The NASDAQ has 15 down days, the S&P500 has 14 and the DJIA fell on 13 days. Of these, the NASDAQ and the S&P500 have ten losses exceeding two percent while the DJIA score is 9 days.
DJIA -.53 percent
NASDAQ -1.33 percent
S&P500 -.76 percent