Just 9 other days in this century have the same pattern as today: the DJIA down one day, the NASDAQ up one day and the S&P500 up for the second day in a row. Most of these closes in the past occurred while prices were trending up; but the next days activity was split evenly between advances and declines.
These three averages have gone substantially different paths in the years first 11 trading days. The DJIA gained more than 7 percent, with 7 advances and four losing days. The S&P500 and the NASDAQ, however, moved up less than one percent, adding .8 and .2 percent, from six advances and five declines.
Yet the DJIA is just catching up, given its 2012 performance of a mere 7.3 percent, while the NASDAQ added 14.0 percent last year and the S&P500 increased 11.7 percent.
DJIA -.17 percent
NASDAQ .22 percent
S&P500 .02 percent