February 9, 2009
The NASDAQ almost stayed on even keel, losing just -.01 percent, while the DJIA was off -.12 percent but the S&P500 managed to edge higher by .15 percent. Todays divergent closes is the 21st such occasion over the 2285 trading days since January 2000.
Moreover, the amount of change on those other days is just about the same as todays, with the average gain of the S&P500 being .08 percent, while the DJIA declined -.13 percent and the NASDAQ, with the exception of one loss of -1.45 percent, averaged -.16 percent.
The average change of each index on the following session was even smaller, ranging between -.03 percent for the NASDAQ and plus .03 percent for the DJIA and the S&P500. However, while most results were quite small, they did include changes of as much as plus to minus three percent. Overall, these two indices rose on eleven days and fell on nine, whereas the NASDAQ had an even number of gains and losses.
DJIA -.12 percent
NASDAQ -.01 percent
S&P500 .15 percent