December 8, 2008
Strong gains continued for the three indices, furthering the never seen before pattern of substantial daily gains in session after session. In the past 30 days, the DJIA, for example, scored 14 gains larger than two percent. Nevertheless, the level of this index remains almost unchanged, because 11 days of losses greater than minus two percent offset these runs.
One has to go to the decline of 1974 to find a near identical pattern. Yet while large price changes succeeded one another, that earlier situation did not bring about a pattern lasting thirty some days.
With not much guidance available from history, and without an available precedent it is near impossible to anticipate the markets future direction.
DJIA 3.46 percent
NASDAQ 4.14 percent
S&P500 3.84 percent