Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the 2008 election.  Since the close on November 4, 2008, the Dow Jones is up 1.52%.  If you didn’t know any better, you might think the last 12 months were rather uneventful. 

I was only planning on using the S&P 500 since it is a broader gauge of market performance, but then realized that data from 1900-1925 (which was unavailable for the necessary 12-month periods) would yield significantly different average returns.  As a result, I included the less broad market measure the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

No real or meaningful conclusions can be drawn from this data – obviously there are many factors that contributed to the market’s movements in these 12-month periods.

--

Peter Lazaroff, Investment Analyst