The bad news is that September is the worst month of the year, but there's plenty of good news to balance out the bad. The bad news: seasonality and the elections September is the worst month of the year for the Dow Industrials, S & P 500, NASDAQ and Russell 2000, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac.
"While momentum usually overrides seasonal concerns, September is hard to ignore – it is the only month down on average," Frank Gretz from Wellington Shields said in a Friday note to clients. 1) The market "broadening" trend is very real. Two-thirds of the S&P 500 was up in August. The NYSE advance/decline line hit an all-time high. More than 70% of the stocks on the NYSE are above their 200-day moving average. Most importantly, themodestly outperformed the S&P 500 in August and closed Friday at an historic high. Megacap Tech did not have a bad month, but aside from Meta it was not a leadership group:2) Earnings remain strong.
It makes sense most traders don't think the Fed needs to be very aggressive yet: with the job market still relatively strong, most traders don't expect the Fed to get aggressive unless it has to.