Investment Review - February 2022
- The January Effect, a hypothesis that the month of January is a good month for the stock market, was not in effect this year. January 2022 was the worst January since 2009, with the S&P 500 down 5.3%. This included the last day of the month when that index was up 1.9%. Over the last twenty years, there have only been six times when the S&P 500 lost more than 3% in January. All of those years were back to positive for the year by May at the latest, except 2008.
- Technology stocks were especially feeling the pain in January, with the Nasdaq Composite, a composite heavily tilted towards Information Technology stocks, down 9% in January.
- Since 1980, 32 of the last 42 years had positive annual returns for the S&P 500, despite having intra-year drops, averaging 14%.
- Trading volatility was also a highlight in January with some intraday swings hitting 6%.
Key Investment Statistics
Sources: FactSet, Wall Street Journal, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Barron’s
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