The see-saws of daily gains followed by daily losses continues, as the DJIA, the NASDAQ and the S&P500 reversed direction, moving higher after yesterdays declines. Todays such close is the 502nd since the beginning of this century almost 3,200 trading days ago.
While 12 percent of all closes during the 2000/2003 decline were ups-then-downs, these rose to nearly 18 percent in the 2007/2009 bear market. Similarly, 15 percent of the 2003/2007 expansion days belong to this class, but only 11 percent have done so since the last, 2009 bottom.
Our diagram shows the five previous 2012 occurrences. It reveals these initiate periods of higher prices in the short run always with only one exception. That was earlier this year, and as is seen, lasted for a bit but then ushered in the major price gains of the past four months.
Now these changes pose the significant dilemma: will prices continue higher, or will they repeat the stiff correction of earlier this year?
DJIA .73 percent
NASDAQ .58 percent
S&P500 .67 percent
