Some say it’s turmoil in the Middle East.It’s October! Of course stocks are down!
Around the world, over the course of centuries of recorded financial history, stock-market returns have averaged 4 full percentage points higher from November to April than from May to October, report researchers Ben Jacobsen at Tilburg University and Cherry Yi Zhang at Nottingham University’s Business School in China.
The S&P 500 SPX is hanging on to a small gain, but that is only because of the early summer gains of a few big tech titans. The average S&P 500 stock is down about 2.5% since the end of April — while an investment in no-risk Treasury bills is up more than 2%.