Trying to Get Out of Correction

The U.S. stock market could hit a notable milestone today, but it isn’t one that investors will feel particularly good about. Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 index  have been in correction territory since February 8, when concerns that inflation was returning to the economy sparked a sell-off that led to their dropping 10 percent from record levels hit earlier in the year.

Both the Dow and the S&P have been in correction territory for 108 trading days. This matches the longest such stretch since the financial crisis in 2008. Should they stay in correction through today, that will mean they are in their longest such stretch since 1984. In that stretch, it took the S&P 122 days to emerge from correction territory, and the Dow 123 days.

Based on their current levels, the Dow would need to rise about 6.2 percent to hit a new record and exit correction territory. The S&P 500 would need to gain just 2.6 percent to ease the correction.