Market Extra: Over the past seven decades — this has been the best date for the stock market

This post was originally published on this site

Wall Street is enjoying a record-setting rally for the S&P 500 index. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise to stock-market history buffs.

From a statistical standpoint, Oct. 28 is the day that, on average, has produced the best gain for the S&P 500 over the past seven decades, said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial, in a Sunday tweet (see chart attached).

Source: LPL Financial

“There are days that are up more often, but in terms of avg return, on Oct 28 the SPX is up 0.54% on avg,” Detrick told MarketWatch via email, noting that that is the highest average return during any day of the year.

On Monday, stocks were certainly in rally mode.

The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.56% touched a fresh intraday record for its first time since July 26 and was up a solid 0.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index  COMP, +1.01% was up 70 points, or 0.9%, just shy of its July 26 all-time high around 8,330, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average  DJIA, +0.49% also was flirting with a fresh record peak last hit July 15 at around 27,360.

Including Monday, the S&P 500 was up for four days in a row, as was the Nasdaq Composite, while the Dow was on pace for its second consecutive winning session.

The rally for equity benchmarks recently have been solid in the face of a month, October, known for above-average volatility, notably the 1929 crash, the 1987 plunge, and the 2008 financial crisis, which have made the monthly stretch a veritable minefield.

However, the S&P 500 is on track for a 2.2% gain in October, which would mark its best gain in that month since October of 2017, when the market climbed 2.22% on the month, FactSet data show.

Add Comment