<font color=green> Traders Win, Investors Lose....Again
NEW YORK -- Barring a year-end recount, the year 2000 appears likely
to produce an unusual clean sweep - six major stock indexes are poised
to turn in negative results.
Indeed, through Friday, the countdown for year-to-date results from
the big six look universally dismal: Dow Jones Industrial Average,
down 9%; the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, down 9%; New York
Stock Exchange Composite Index, down 3%; Nasdaq Composite Index, down
29%; Russell 2000, down 7%; Wilshire 5000, down 11%.
Such across-the-board red-ink performance is rare. It has happened
only once since 1981, the first year that all six were reported, and
that dismal year was a decade ago, 1990, when the full-year poor
report ranged from the DJIA's 4.34% decline to Nasdaq's 17.8%
collapse.
And prior to that year, the last full-slate decline (before Wilshire
joined the list) was 1974, a truly staggering year of double-digit
declines, from the DJIA's 27.6% swoon to Nasdaq's 35.1% collapse.
The glimpse back in the history books could be reassuring, however.
The year following the 1990 fiasco turned out to be bright indeed,
with 1991 gains exceeding 20% in all but one of the six indexes (led
by Nasdaq's 56% rise). And similar rosy performances emerged following
the 1974 sell-off, when the Nasdaq's meager 29.8% gain was the worst
of the bunch. (The DJIA led with a 38.3% boost.)
Some good news even emerges from this year, based on data for the
Dow Jones Industry Groups and Sectors. Of 121 indexes, 25 have turned
in gains exceeding 10% so far in the fourth quarter. |
