Why stock investors love Tuesdays this year
Dow rises for 17 Tuesdays in a row, best 'day of the week' streak since 1968.
Trader Michael Zicchinolfi, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, May 7, 2013. The Dow Jones industrial average punched through another milestone Tuesday: its first close above 15,000. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) -- Everybody looks forward to weekends. This year, stock investors should embrace Tuesdays as well.
That's because the Dow Jones industrial average has risen every Tuesday going back to Jan. 18. That's 17 straight weeks, a streak that includes May 7, when the Dow closed above 15,000 for the first time.
Only Wednesday has done better on Wall Street, and that was 45 years ago. Back in 1968, "hump day" saw increases for 24 weeks in a row — from June to November — according to Schaeffer's Investment Research.
Part of the reason for Tuesdays' success is simple math. The Dow has been up a high percentage of days this year. The blue-chip index has climbed 56 out of 87 trading days, or 64 percent of the time.
If that percentage were to hold for the rest of the year, it would be the best since at least 1900, according to Schaeffer's.
It's been a year of records and winning streaks for the Dow. The index of 30 big-name U.S. stocks rose for 10 straight days between March 1 and March 14, its longest string of consecutive gains since 1996. During that run, the Dow surpassed a record that had stood for more than five years.
With the Dow rising, and Mondays statistically a weak day to begin with, it is more likely that stocks will rise on Tuesdays, said Schaeffer's Ryan Detrick.
"We've had Mondays down and just as quickly Tuesdays have snapped right back up," he said, noting that Mondays have been the weakest day of the week this year.
During the Tuesday streak, the average gain for the Dow has been 0.52 percent.
And Mondays?
The day everyone loves to hate has lost an average of 0.22 percent.
