Market Scores Sixth Successive Rise
Prices moved higher again, maintaining the string of daily positive changes string that began on Thursday of the previous week. While the averages reached this same milestone only 73 trading days ago, on December 29, 2009, these are the only two occasions since mid-1995, more than 3700 market days in the past. In total, the market achieved this six up days in a row a mere 12 times since 1950.
Notwithstanding this achievement, the S&P500 edged up no more than .08 percent; the DJIA gained .19 percent while the NASDAQ moved .43 percent higher today.
Returning to the count of successive advances, note that in April, so far, the DJIA has declined only twice, whereas both the NASDAQ and the S&P500 had just one decline. Accordingly, the six in a row feat tends to underrate the markets strength and endurance.The NASDAQ now is 4.9 percent higher than at the end of March; the S&P500 moved up 3.6 percent while the DJIA advanced 2.6 percent in the nine sessions of April.
Putting these data in perspective, note that the NASDAQ achieved better gains on only 323 occasions, or on 12.5 percent of the 2,584 trading days since January 2000.The DJIA fell below this mark, having 16.5 percent of its closes exceed this recent nine day run-up. The S&P500, on the other hand, leads the other two indices by having just 9.8 percent of its other nine day runs do better than its 3.6 percent since March 31.
Turning to expectations for tomorrow, the record shows that the DJIA achieved a seventh advance only four times; the S&P500 stands even, at six gains and six losses, while the NASDAQ moved higher, achieving a seven day streak, nine times.
DJIA .19 percent
NASDAQ .43 percent
S&P500 .08 percent