A good defense beats a good offense, as the saying goes, but does it hold true for the markets after a plunge? Maybe not.
U.S. stocks beat defensive assets like gold and Treasury bonds in the trading month after a big market drop. While not on the chart below, both the S&P 500 (3.2 percent) and Nasdaq (2.4 percent) also bested gold and the 10-year in the month after a two-day Dow drop of 5 percent or more.
But oil, which always suffers during bouts of market anxiety, doesn't quickly bounce back.
While the Russell 2000 was the worst among the major U.S. stock benchmarks in this bounce-back period, by another measure, the Russell has been a top performer during periods of major market anxiety. Check the Ask Kensho section at the end of this week's Big Data Investor newsletter for more on that.
