Unless a person lives in a cave, I suspect by now you've heard the S&P 500 was down for the month of January. I suspect you've also heard, "So goes January, So goes rest of the year!"
Looking back over the past 25 years, when the S&P 500 was down 2% or more for the month, 75% of the time it ended higher by year's end! The average gain was just under 8% for the year.
Twice, a down January was bad for the S&P in the past 25 years ( 2000 and 2008).
On Friday I shared that the Dow was facing what could be an important Fibonacci extension level. In 2007, the Dow hit this extension level and stopped on a dime, leading to its poor 2008 performance.
The odds may be low that the Fibonacci extension level stops the Dow again in its tracks, but the impact could be very important if it does.