Today’s close -with the NASDAQ higher for the third day while both the DJIA and the S&P500 declined after two previous up days- is the fifth such pattern in recent months. The last two happened just days ago on November 12 and November 5, with two earlier ones in early September. Prices on the following days fell as often as they increased.
Today’s focus, though, is on the size of these changes. Earlier these fell in the range of minus .03 to minus .28 percent for the DJIA and the S&P500. Today they are minus .05 and minus .13 percent; the NASDAQ moved higher, but its gain at .07 percent is also negligible.
We continue our focus on the extraordinary length of the current bull market, now in its 1,187th day of expansion – comparing the size of recent daily changes with those happening near the end of the two previous bull markets.
We note that the daily S&P500 changes before the 2007 were comparably small – as in recent days. But more telling is the history after these previous downturns: those daily changes were as small as in recent days and their daily up-and-down changes are near parallel.
DJIA -.05 percent
NASDAQ .07 percent
S&P500 -.13 percent