Here’s some surprising data: The Nasdaq 100 — the big cap tech stocks — are down for the year.
I just punched in a few indices into excel — Here’s some surprising YTD numbers: The Nasdaq 100 (BDX) is down -2.26%; The Qs are off -2.08%; The Nasdaq Comp is a few ticks above flat. Utilities are also off -2.00%.
The Dow has gained 5.46%, the S&P500 is up 2.62%. The big winners are the Russell 2000 — up 8.29%, and the Dow Transports, up 13.08%
YTD Index Performance
| Index | 12/31/2005 | Recent price | Change | Gain/Loss |
| QQQQ | 40.41 | 39.57 | (0.84) | -2.08% |
| NDX | 1645.2 | 1608 | (37.20) | -2.26% |
| Nasdaq Comp | 2205.3 | 2209 | 3.70 | 0.17% |
| Dow | 10717.5 | 11303 | 585.50 | 5.46% |
| S&P500 | 1248.29 | 1281 | 32.71 | 2.62% |
| Russell 2000 | 673.22 | 729 | 55.78 | 8.29% |
| Transports | 4196.03 | 4745 | 548.97 | 13.08% |
| Utilities | 405.11 | 397 | (8.11) | -2.00% |
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Interesting stuff . . .
Is it only the beginning ?
NDX is also below where it settled end of ’04… not too far from end of ’03
Those numbers don’t look too bad yet. Just wait until 2007. I bet we see some real carnage then.
There was a strong decline the last week of 2005 which was reversed the first day of 2006. If you consider that to be short term noise, the performance looks much worse. I’m not sure if any of the broad indices will be positive for the year (since Jan 3) at the end of the day except for the Russell 2000, which is heading down quickly (not today specifically, but relative to the other indices for the past week).
6-8 down days in a row with 5-10% coming off is probably as far as this fall can go without a pause. Perhaps there will be a pre-expiration rally tomorrow.
I would like to see the media start reporting the inflation adjusted change in the indices. CNBC was on the “DOW record” watch for a while there, completely ignoring the inflation over the past 5 years.
Then, after they do that, we just need them to start using real values for inflation….not the phony government numbers.