Small losses after five straight advances cooled the market after the amazing gains of the past 14 trading days. The S&P500, yesterday at 1,632.69, added 5.2 percent between May 8 and April 17. That rate is more than triple the median 14 day increase –of 1.51 percent- in the more than thousand days since the March 2007 bottom.
This index outperformed the DJIA, which added some 3.91 percent over the last 14 trading days; it lagged the NASDAQ, however; it gained 7.80 percent since April 17.
As with the S&P500, these advances are far greater than the median 14-day rate in this expansion. These numbers over the last 1,045 trading days are 1.51 percent for the DJIA and 1.55 percent for the NASDAQ.
The strength of these last days is most unusual, to say the least! Moreover, this current expansion so far has outperformed the last two bull markets. The median 14 day S&P500 advance between 1996 and 2000 stands at 1.24 percent, while the 2007/2009 median is just .86 percent.
So it is not just that prices have been breaking new ground, advancing past previous highs that show this market’s unusual strength. The large margins of median gains, far above previous median 14-day increases, reveal the extraordinary strength of recent gains.
DJIA -.15 percent
NASDAQ -.12 percent
S&P500 -.37 percent