Its been 16 years since the S&P500 moved up for seven successive days. This advance is now in its 77th day without a significant losing streak. Counting only from the March 2009 market bottom, this is the longest lasting upswing in two years.
Though the focus of attention now is on the S&P500, this index has regained only 99.4 percent of its last, October 2007 top. Similarly, the DJIA got the spotlight last week; it is now at 102 percent of its 2007 high. But the best performer that has surpassed that top long ago- crossed the 115.7 percent mark today.
Todays diagram reveals that we are experiencing the fifth major growth period since the 2009 low. It shows that the lengths of market expansions have been decreasing. Though the current gains that started in mid-November have now lasted 77 trading days, longer than the two previous expansions of 73 and 68 days.
Note that the length of each of the last two, most recent, corrections is shorter than its predecessor. These fell from 101 days at the end of 2011, to 47 and then to 42 days.
DJIA .32 percent
NASDAQ .35 percent
S&P500 .26 percent
