February is not seasonal sweet spot for stocks

January, normally a good month for stocks, was downright dreary for Wall Street this year, with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index tumbling 3.1% in the first month of the year. That puts even more pressure on stocks in February, a historically mediocre month for stock returns. “February is a weak link in the ‘Best Six Months’ span for stocks, which runs from November to the end of April, writes editor Jeffrey Hirsch in the 2015 edition of the Stock Trader’s Almanac. Indeed,

February performance for the large-cap S&P 500 has been ho-hum at best. Since 1950, the benchmark U.S. stock index has posted an average loss of 0.03% in February. That ranks ninth out of all 12 months, according to the Almanac. Optimists will grab on to the fact that February isn’t always bad; the S&P 500 posted its biggest ever gain back in 1986, when it rallied 7.1%. Pessimists point out that 2009 marked real turmoil for February, with stocks plunging 11%.

Source: USA Today

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