A Promising Start to the Year for Stocks?
By: Robert Hum
Much is made of the January barometer (the correlation between the stock market’s January performance and its performance at the end of the year), but how about what happens when the market is up in each of the first 2 months of the year?
Since 1940 (that’s over the past 71 years), the Dow has started the year with gains in both January and February 26 times. When that has happened, only once (in 1974) has the Dow finished the year with a loss.
Perhaps that’s a promising sign for bulls in 2011, the Dow is up 2.8% this month, following its 2.7% gain last month. Over the past 2 months, the Dow is up nearly 5.5%.
Best & Worst Performing Stocks
Additionally, here is a look at the best and worst performing stocks in each of the major US indices:
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