The Energy And Market Page, T+223 -- August 31, 2017

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This market is just remarkable. The NASDAQ apparently hit an all-time closing high today, although not an intra-day high, according to CNBC. I can't verify that, but record or not, it was another remarkable day.

Likewise, the Dow just missed a gain for the month of August, as far as I could tell, but I could be wrong. During this past month, when there was a pullback in the Dow many pundits, including Jim Cramer, said it was not unusual for the market to pullback in August.

From this USA Today story, July 25, 2017:

In the past 20 years, August is the worse month for the Dow's performance, with an average drop of 1.4%. And September hasn’t fared much better, posting average losses of nearly 1%, which is the third-worst monthly ranking. If you go back 100 years, September is the Dow’s worst month of the year.

Investopedia says September, on the other hand, is the worst month for investing:

One of the historical realities of the stock market is that it typically has performed poorest during the month of September. The "Stock Trader's Almanac" reports that, on average, September is the month when the stock market's three leading indexes usually perform the poorest. Since 1950, the month of September has seen an average decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) of 1.1%, while the S&P 500 has averaged a 0.7% decline during September. Since the Nasdaq was first established in in 1971, its composite index has fallen an average of 1% during September trading. This is, of course, only an average exhibited over many years, and September is certainly not the worst month of stock-market trading every year.

Bloomberg says October is the worst month for the market and, of course, Black Monday, 1987, occurred in October.


And, of course, "everyone" says to "sell in May and go away.

And, yet, with all that, futures, right now, are again green for equities.