With all three market indicators closing higher, the resultant pattern of five straight advances for the NASDAQ and the S&P500, combined with a first positive day for the DJIA, yields a combination seen just four other times. The last two took place this year, one just days ago in September with the earlier one on April 26.
Since the other two happened during the 2003/2007 expansion, it seems this pattern and bull markets go hand-in-hand. However, since one took place some 89 trading days before that top, a caution is necessary.
Given that the S&P500 increased 5.9 percent over the last nine trading days, today’s focus is on the extraordinary strength of the current market. Our diagram plots these nine-day percent changes of the S&P500. It reveals that ‘high gain’ segments cluster around declines, but it shows also none as high as 5.9 percent occurring recently.
Thus the welcoming of strong spurts is not without some apprehension, given their preponderance while the market suffers substantial declines.
DJIA .49 percent
NASDAQ .24 percent
S&P500 .57 percent
