Losses continued but they were more modest than the day before as the NASDAQ marked its third straight day in the red, while the DJIA and the S&P500 experienced their second successive loss. It is the 20th repeat of this pattern since the start of 2000, and reiterates many of the yesterday’s marks.
Whereas today’s changes are even more minor than the day before, in the past this pattern suffered substantial losses. The S&P500 average of -1.1 percent, for example, is dwarfed by the largest hit of -4.3 percent; the NASDAQ’s large average of -1.8 percent is minute compared to its largest loss of -6.3 percent.
Yet, just like yesterday’s pattern, these major drops happened long ago, during the decline of 2000 to 2003. However, this long ago distance need not be comforting: it could very well foreshadow a similar, lengthy retreat from today’s values.
Looking at tomorrow, consider the last repeat of this pattern on December 4 of last year. Both the DJIA and the S&P500 initiated a long run of gains, lasting six days for the S&P500 and five sessions for the DJIA. The NASDAQ, though, fell and then experienced a run of up and down closes.
Finally, consider again the quite small sizes of today’s losses. The S&P500 shows only 372 other days -of the 3,000 trading days in this century- with declines this small; while just 190 previous closes exist when the S&P500 and the DJIA fell with numbers minor as today’s.
DJIA -.33 percent
NASDAQ -.01 percent
S&P500 -.25 percent
