Stocks got off to a slow August start but the big jobs beat on Friday, 75,000 jobs above expectations, could keep the stock market hot. The Dow immediately jumped. Which stocks are most likely to keep it up? One way to look at this question is to follow the recent history of stocks in the month of August. Kensho took a look at the Dow components to find the stocks with the best August performance, on average, and those stocks that have turned in the most reliable August performance — traded positive the highest percentage of times during the August periods.
Among the best-performing Dow stocks, Pfizer deserves a look in addition to the five stocks below. It tied Microsoft at fifth among Dow stocks with an average August return of 1.9 percent.
The worst August trades in the Dow over time: General Electric and Goldman Sachs, both positive only 30 percent of the time in the month and with negative average performance — Goldman (-4.62 percent) and General Electric (-2.15 percent)