Prices jumped at the opening bell and stayed near that level through the close. They achieved their largest advance in 21 trading days and seemingly moved beyond the small fractions posted almost every session in December.
These results, occurring on the first trading day of the new year, will generate significant attention. Indeed, these three averages together achieved positive closes on this opening day only five times in the past 11 years.
Pointedly, prices scampered higher in four of those five years: they fell in 2002 but in 2003, 2006, 2009, and last year, they closed higher than the year before.
Some other statistics may be of interest. All three indices fell three times at the years start of trading. And by the end of those years, prices of these indices closed lower than on December 31 of the year before.
DJIA .81 percent
NASDAQ 1.46 percent
S&P500 1.13 percent