Remember to take time out this Sunday for all the Mother’s in your world. Over the last 29 years on the Friday before Mother’s Day Dow has gained ground 19 times. On Monday after, DJIA has advanced 18 times. Average gain on Friday has been 0.25% and 0.23% on Monday. However, Monday following Mother’s Day has been down 8 of the last 12 years. In 2019, DJIA suffered its worst post Mother’s Day loss going back to 1995, off 2.38 ..read more

April was the first down month in 6 months. Almanac readers know April is the best Dow month by average percent change and #2 for S&P. It’s ranked fourth for average percent change on NASDAQ and Russell 2000.  In general, April is a notoriously bullish market month overall with a high average percent and plurality of gains across the board. A negative April is cause for concern. When the #1 Dow month is down that could be significant. Digging into the data in the tables below of all down Aprils since 1950 there is a plethora of red in May and through Q2 and Q3. There are several stee ..read more

Clip from Making Money w/ @cvpayne @FoxBusiness today. Down April after up Q1. Election year seasonality. Bullish for year. Cautious for now. $DIA $SPY $QQQ $IWM. Calls on $DIS $AAPL $TSLA ..read more

Over the last 21 years, the first three days of May have historically traded higher, and the S&P 500 has been up 18 of the last 26 first trading days of May. Bouts of weakness often appear around or on the fourth, sixth/seventh, and twelfth trading days of the month while the last four or five trading days have generally enjoyed respectable gains on average, but the last day of May has weakened noticeably with only NASDAQ gaining ground. Monday before May monthly option expiration is much stronger than monthly expiration day itself albeit weaker for small caps. S&P 500 has registered ..read more

With all the college protests in the news it brings comparisons of 1968 to mind. 2024’s Big Election Year Q1 gains have already put the 2012 analog in my sights. Both were election years with somewhat correlated yet somewhat different narratives to 2024. The chart is from my members only webinar yesterday. S&P is clearly tracking 2012, not 1968 so far this year. 1968 was marked by escalations in Vietnam, the Tet Offensive, and protests on US college campuses and elsewhere. Sitting President Lyndon Johnson dropped out of the race on March 31. Robert Kennedy senior, the leading democratic c ..read more

The first trading day of May has had a bullish history over the past 26 years. DJIA, S&P 500 and NASDAQ have all averaged around 0.4% on the day. S&P 500 and Russell 2000 have the best track records, up 18 times or 69.2% of the time since 1998. With an average gain of 0.21%, Russell 2000 is slightly weaker. May’s first trading day’s worst loss was in 2020. DJIA and S&P 500 shed over 2.5% while NASDAQ and Russell 2000 dropped over 3 ..read more

May has been a tricky month over the years, a well-deserved reputation following the May 6, 2010 “flash crash”. It used to be part of what we once called the “May/June disaster area.” From 1965 to 1984 the S&P 500 was down during May fifteen out of twenty times. Then from 1985 through 1997 May was the best month, gaining ground every single year (13 straight gains) on the S&P, up 3.3% on average with the DJIA falling once and NASDAQ suffering two losses. In the years since 1997, May’s performance has remained erratic; DJIA up fourteen times in the past twenty-six years (four of the ye ..read more

2024’s great start was the third best Election Year Q1 since 1950. Looks like we’re tracking Top Q1 Election Years more pronounced April-May dip. Chop continues in July and August and these years have marked time until the election in November, gaining about 2.5% on from April to October. Regardless of the election outcome S&P 500 suffered only two losses in the last seven months of election years since 1950, 2000 and 2008 (2024 STA page 80 ..read more

After five straight months of gains and numerous new all-time highs, recent weakness and the corresponding spike in volatility seem unfamiliar. Despite lingering inflation and escalating geopolitical tensions, S&P 500 was down 3.86% from its closing all-time high of 5254.35 on March 28 through its close on April 16. This is well below the average historical largest drawdown during an election year since 1952 of 13.07%. Were it not for steep declines in 2020 and 2008, election years have tended to enjoy relatively modest drawdowns. Of the last 18 election years, 11 experienced single-digit ..read more

We issued our Best Six Months MACD Seasonal Sell signal for DJIA and S&P 500 to newsletter subscribers on April 2 when slower moving MACD indicators applied to DJIA and S&P 500 both turned negative after the start of the last month of the BSMs. This marked the start of our transition to a more cautious stance. Arrows in the charts point to a crossover or negative histogram on the slower moving MACD used by our Seasonal Switching Strategy to issue a sell signal. NASDAQ’s “Best Eight Months” lasts until June. Subscribe to our Almanac Investor Newsletter and get all our trades. https://s ..read more