The S&P500 continues its advance, reaching levels never seen before. Yet today’s net gain comes to just .16 percent. Meanwhile the DJIA slipped into the red and the NASDAQ lost .66 percent. This result –the S&P500 up three days while the other two averages decline- yields a rare pattern: only seven other sessions since 1996 share this combination.
Our diagram shows five occurring during over two bull markets and two taking place in the 2007/2009 decline. The numbers next to the gain and loss symbols indicate the percentage changes on the following day. The largest decline, shaving nearly five percent off these indices happened just before the 2009 bottom; the next deepest loss –about two percent- occurred near the end of the 2007 bull market.
Unfortunately, with price changes on the following day ranging from minus 4.9 percent to plus .2 percent, the record throws doubt on what prices to expect for Monday, the following day.
DJIA -.03 percent
NASDAQ -.66 percent
S&P500 .16 percent
