February 21, 2012 Another Not Much Change Day
Prices hardly changed at all as the NASDAQ fell -.11 percent and the DJIA gained .12 percent; the S&P500 increased .07 percent. This pattern, of three successive advances for the DJIA and the S&P500, and two losses in a row for the NASDAQ, happened just three other times in this century.
The diagram shows these occurring in widely different circumstances. One is near the 2000 market top, another in the pause in middle of the 2003/2007 bull market, while the last previous close, in 2012, marked the market regaining its recent losses.
Yet considering each of these small closes separately reveals a most curious contrast. The S&P500 by itself closed 127 times in the range of zero to todays plus .07 percent. The count for the DJIA is 208 in its range of zero to .12 percent, while the NASDAQ has the least, with only 125 days between -.11 percent and zero.
But the most significant property shared by these three indices- is that nearly all these small gains came during periods of rising prices.
We plan to continue this inquiry into small daily changes, and consider the relationship between market trends and negative closes.
DJIA .12 percent
NASDAQ -.11 percent
S&P500 .07 percent