March 4, 2009
Prices gained more than two percent, in the markets
first up day since February 25.
Moreover, the direction was up, at a good pace, for the entire day. There have been 18 such closes since 1950, when four negative days in a row preceded an up tick. Eight of these occurred in this century.
A note of importance is that five of those eight occasions came at, or near, the bottom of a decline. The others coincide with near tops and rising values.
Also, the gains in this scenario have exceeded todays on just three occasions; one of these occurred in July 2002, when the increases were in the five to six percent range.
In the past, however, retreats dominated the next day. The S&P500 recorded only five plus days, while this index fell on 13 follow-up days. The DJIA and the NASDASQ fared only a little better, with six advances compared to twelve declines.
DJIA 2.66 percent
NASDAQ 2.80 percent
S&P500 2.79 percent