January 28, 2009
It was a 3.55 percent day for the NASDAQ, the best since last Wednesday, and its fourth positive close in a row. The S&P500 has a similar score, with a 3.36 percent advance. Even DJIA, which had the smallest increase of 2.46 percent, now has closed higher for its third straight session.
While there have been 48 (42 for the NASDAQ) closes with larger gains, 34 of these have come since January 2000. Moreover, 2008 saw 15 such days, with 11 of these happening after September. A final point is that 30 of these last 34 streaks occurred in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2008 all years in which values were smaller on December 31 than on January 1.
Furthermore, in 2008, 10 of the 15 days following this streak, failed to continue these advances, closing lower than the day before.
On the other hand, another feature of 2008 is that on the next day, each of these indices scored three significant gains. The NASDAQ ranged from 2.94 to 6.33; the DJIA from 2.05 to 4.93 percent, and the S&P500 went from 2.58 to 6.07 percent.
DJIA 2.46 percent
NASDAQ 3.55 percent
S&P500 3.36 percent