On Friday, The S&P 500 Did Something It Hadn't Done Since 2008
Back to the Future: Part 2
This week, the S&P 500 ended one year with a losing day and started the next year in the red.
This is the first time the benchmark index has done this since 2008.
Jonathan Krinsky — chief market technician at MKM Partners who alerted us to this factoid — noted in an email on Friday that while 2008 brings up all kinds of bad memories for stock investors, these consecutive down days don't really portend doom for the market in 2015.
Krinsky wrote:
"If the SPX closes down today it would be the first time since 2008 where the last day of the prior year, and the first day of the new year were both down. While that may have appear to have negative connotations, this combination is actually not that unusual nor bearish. In fact, since 1980 the SPX has had this combination 10 times ('89, '93, '94, '95, '97, '98, '99, '01, '05, '07, '08). The average return in those years has been +7.24%, and up 7 of 10 times. Therefore while the declines on Wednesday and today are perhaps surprising, they are not unusual nor particularly bearish from a historical context."
So you could say the S&P 500 did something it hasn't done since 2008. Or that the S&P 500 did something that has happened 10 times since 1980. Either way.
And to boot, the S&P 500 lost less than 1 point on Friday, slipping 0.70 points to close at 2,058.2.
What's 0.70 points between friends?
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