The DJIA fell again, changing direction for the fourth time in a row. Yet that decline is so small -.06 percent that it shows up only in the second decimal place. Nevertheless todays close of 11,491 stands 1.16 percent above the 11,359 on December 7, just 10 trading days ago. Similarly the NASDAQ advanced 1.30 percent and the S&P500 gained 1.22 percent in this span.
While the small daily changes hide this progress, it results from the small gains being larger than the small declines. For example, yesterdays DJIA plus .36 is almost 14 times the size of todays -.26 percent loss; and the Wednesday decline of -.17 percent offset the larger .42 percent gain of the day before
At this point, these indices have recovered past their November 5 highs, with the NASDAQ now 2.44 percent higher.
Looking to the record for patterns identical to these last days, we find just seven since January 2000. On the following day, the NASDAQ closed lower five times, falling twice. The DJIA and the S&P500, however, scored five advances, having only two losing days.
DJIA -.06 percent
NASDAQ .21 percent
S&P500 .08 percent