Getting your player ready...
Adherents of the January effect are worried. The theory says stocks’ performance in the first month is a good indicator for the rest of the year.
So the 3.7 percent drop for the S&P 500 during January is bad news, right?
“No,” JPMorgan strategists wrote in a recent report. “The January effect has only worked in the past in the case of a positive January return.”
Since 1945
When stocks rose in January,
85% of the time the market rose in the remaining 11 months.
When stocks fell in January,
45% of the time the market fell in the remaining 11 months. Source: JPMorgan
The Associated Press
