For the second day in a row, prices moved higher but gains were small: today’s S&P500 changed by only .36 percent, while Friday’s advance was a similar minor .29 percent. By contrast, the median gain over the more than 1,100 closes of the current bull market amounts to .57 percent.
All the same, though, small advances are more typical when prices are moving higher; the median positive change of the S&P500 in bear markets is nearly double that of bull market gains.
Today’s diagram shows that closes this small occur on only one of every five days – but this proportion rises to about twice that when prices are trending up.
This history allows the conclusion that the current market remains in a moving higher mode.
DJIA .15 percent
NASDAQ .37 percent
S&P500 .36 percent
