After rising two successive days, prices declined, from -.52 percent for the NASDAQ and -1.15 percent for the DJIA to 1.30 percent for the S&P500. Moreover, such negative days, while not in the majority, occur often, after the current closing pattern of -1/+2 – that is, a negative day that follows two positive days.
In this century, of the 166 such days, only 92 were positive, while 74 declined. In years when the indices declined, there were 33 losses, not many less than the 39 positive days. The record for positive years does not favor the gainers much more: there were 53 days where prices increased, not many more than the 41 days of falling prices.
DJIA -1.15 percent
NASDAQ - .52 percent
S&P500 -1.30 percent