S&P 500 Week Before Christmas Performance

Next week is the week before the Christmas holiday, and below we highlight how the S&P 500 has historically performed during this week.  As shown, both recently and longer term, the S&P 500 has averaged nice gains during the week before Christmas.  Over the last ten years, the index has averaged a gain of 0.43%.  Over the last 20 years -- 0.81%, 50 years -- 0.51%, and 100 years -- 0.30%.  Since 1928, the S&P 500 has averaged a gain of 0.15% during all one-week periods, so the S&P 500 has historically doubled the average weekly return in the week before Christmas.