The unusual continues, and now results in the first ever close of the S&P500 rising three straight days with the NASDAQ increasing twice while the DJIA records its second decline in a row. We repeat, as so often in recent days, statistical projections are useless without a significant sample of repeats.
We turn instead to comparing the current market and its recovery from the last low in 2009 and the previous expansion from 2003 to 2007. Our diagram reveals they have many parallels. Yet the current increase is substantially ahead of the earlier recuperation and this advantage has persisted, with the exception of one major retreat, for the last 750 trading days.
Consider the 14,000 mark: the DJIA reached this just days ago, on February 1. It achieved this target 981 trading days after its 2009 low. That represents a significantly better performance than the earlier recovery; that needed 1,097 days to achieve the same goal.
At this point, the DJIA has moved 213 percent above its 2009 low; that’s a major improvement over the earlier recoup, which managed only 188 percent at its very best before topping out after some 1,154 days of expansion.
All this is very good, yet raises the question: how far will this advantage and strength continue into the future?
DJIA -.07 percent
NASDAQ .06 percent
S&P500 .07 percent
