Deja Monday

If the market's decline is giving you a sense of deja vu, that is because we are currently on pace for the eighth straight down Monday in a row.  As if Mondays weren't bad enough, the ongoing string of negative starts to the week only makes things worse.  In the table below, we highlight each prior period in the DJIA's history where the index started off the week on a down note for eight straight weeks.  You have to go back more than ten years (May 2002) to find a streak this long.

If you think the current streak has been annoying, it pales in comparison to the period in 1963 where the DJIA started off the week on a down note for fourteen straight weeks!  Looking at the Dow's performance following prior similar periods shows that the index has averaged a gain of 0.02% in the following week (median = 0.88%), and a decline of 0.22% on the following Monday (median = +0.15%).  Over the next month, the DJIA has averaged a gain of 0.07% (median = -0.10%).  

While the poor starts to the last eight weeks have certainly been annoying, we would note that in spite of these declines, the S&P 500 is still up since the streak began.  On Friday 6/1 (the closing price before the first down Monday of the current streak), the DJIA closed at 12,118.57.  As of 2PM today, the DJIA is trading 4.8% higher at 12,705.  Down Mondays?  Bring 'em on!