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The Dow’s Off to its Worst Start Since 1991
By JLP | January 14, 2008
According to this MSN MoneyCentral article, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off to its worst start since 1991:
The Dow has started the year off nearly 4.96% — its worst opening eight days since 1991, when the blue-chip index started with a 5.02% slide. The S&P is down 4.6%, its worst eight-day opening performance since 1978 and its fourth-worst ever.
The Dow is only off 4.88% if you use the total return, which includes dividends. Still it’s not off to a great start.
That said, a bad start to the year doesn’t always mean the entire year will be bad. As the graphic below shows, the Dow actually ended 1991 up 20.32%. Of course we have no idea what 2008 has in store for us.
Topics: Investing | 2 Comments »
January 14th, 2008 at 1:32 am
Yup – we’ve been sitting on cash for awhile and just bought an S&P index fund (FSMAX). The ancient rule: the big buying opportunity isn’t during the recession but just before it starts…
January 14th, 2008 at 10:45 am
[...] My last post highlighted the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off to its worst start since 1991. The article I hightlighted failed to mention what actually happened to the Dow during the month of January, 1991. Although the Dow started the month down 5.01%, it actually ended the month UP nearly 4%: [...]