Last week the stock market caught a bit of a breather, as the S&P 500 gained ground after having lost value in each of the six previous weeks. Perhaps we've seen the end of that correction, and if it really is over, this one will have turned out to be prett mild. No one wants to see the market drop for six straight weeks, but it could have been a lot worse.
Consider that after all those declines, the S&P lost roughly 7 percent of its value. That's a little more than 1 percent each week. In contrast, the previous time the S&P 500 had had a six-week losing streak, it was in 2002, and that time the total losses were more than double what we've seen this time around, at just under 15 percent.
In fact, what we've just come through isn't even technically a correction. In Wall Street terms, a correction is a 10 percent loss of value in the market. That's little consolation, of course, if you've watched your portfolio slowly slide downhill for the past month and a half.
No comments:
Post a Comment