December 13, 2011 Another Down Day Prices fell for the second day in a row, with the NASDAQ losing as much as yesterday. The DJIA and the S&P500, however, descended just about half the rate of the day before. This generates a pattern for the three averages of -2/+1: two losses in a row after a positive day. There have been 151 such closes, with 75 occurring since January 2000. These were distributed almost equally over the two declines and expansions, representing 2.3 percent of all treading days in the 2000/2003 decline and the following upswing that ended at the end of 2007.
Their frequencies increased since then, rising to 3.9 percent during the 2007/2009 drop and 2.6 percent since then. Gains exceeded declines on the following session by a ratio of 41:34. DJIA -.55 percentNASDAQ -1.26 percent
S&P500 -.87 percent
Our computer system is up again, after several painful days of sleuthing.