December 2, 2008
Todays sharp reversal, coming on the heels of yesterdays huge losses, pushed up prices by more than three percent. Most of this action came near the end of trading, as the indices lost most of their early gains, but then shot up near the end of trading.
As of today, prices are down substantially from their year end closes of December 31, 2007: the NASDAQ has lost 45.3 percent while the S&P500 dropped 42.2 percent; even the DJIA, posting the smallest loss, is off 36.5 percent
As for the balance of the month, consider the S&P500 record since 1950. It closed higher 42 times; nevertheless, in nine of those years, prices fell in December. Whereas there were only six negative Decembers in the 15 years that the S&P500 closed lower, this results in a ratio of two December losses for every five negative years. Clearly then, negative years have almost twice as many negative Decembers -40%- as the positive years-21.4 percent.
DJIA 3.31 percent
NASDAQ 3.70 percent
S&P500 3.99 percent