‘Sentiment has changed’ as Dow plunges 6.2% in May

NEW YORK — They sold in May and went away, all right. With a disappointing finish on Thursday, the stock market closed what was by some measures its worst month in two years.

Over five dismal weeks, Facebook’s IPO fizzled, a debt crisis in Europe loomed, and nobody was in the mood to buy.

When May was mercifully over, the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes had erased most of the strong gains they built up through March and held on to in April.

“The sentiment has changed,” says Craig Callahan, president of ICON Advisers. “Any time the market dips like this, it erodes some confidence. It scares people out of the market. All of the above, May has done that.”

The Wall Street adage that investors should “sell in May and go away” may not be sound strategy all the time — many financial advisers say it’s foolish — but this year it looked like good advice. The Dow lost 820 points, or 6.2%, for the month, its worst showing since May 2010. That month, investors were spooked by a one-day “flash crash” in stocks when a large trade overwhelmed computer servers.

This May, stocks limped to the finish. The Dow closed down 26.41 points, or 0.2%, on Thursday to end the month at 12,393.45. It declined on all but five of 22 trading sessions.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 2.99 points to close at 1310.33. It fell 6.3% in May, its worst month since September. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10.02 points, or 0.4%, to 2827.34, and had its worst month in two years.

On Thursday, investors latched on to a sliver of good news in the morning: May sales from retailers such as Target and Macy’s looked healthy and sent stock futures higher.

Then the government offered two unpleasant pieces of economic data. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose to a five-week high, and economic growth from January through March was slower than first thought.

Underscoring the crisis in Europe, the head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, told European leaders that the setup of the 17-country euro currency union was unsustainable “unless further steps are taken.”

Worried about Europe and the weaker readings on the U.S. economy, investors continued a stampede Thursday into U.S. government bonds, which they see as a safer place to put their money.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note tumbled to its lowest level on record, 1.54%, and rebounded to end at 1.56%. It was 1.62% Wednesday.