The Markets Aren't Moving

The markets barely moved at all yesterday. The S&P 500 rose by an almost imperceptible 0.03 percent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by the same 0.03 percent.

That's the way things have been going lately: U.S. stocks have been unusually quiet for a while now. Seventy trading days have come and gone since October 8 of last year, when the S&P 500 tumbled by nearly 1.6 percent and the Dow plunged 314 points.

How unusual is that? Since 1928, the major stock market indexes have declined at least 1 percent twice a month on average, according to researchers at Piper Sandler.