USA TODAY US Edition

What to watch

Amid madness, a slam-dunk start to March

- Adam Shell @adamshell USA TODAY

This has been a record-breaking year, and 2016 is still young. Stocks got off to their worst start ever.

Then Tuesday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index posted its best first-day March gain ever.

Wall Street has suffered through its fair share of madness this year, but the current March madness could be a sign of better days ahead for a market that had been performing like an unranked one-and-done team and not like the blue-chip phenom form it flashed Tuesday.

The S&P 500 jumped 2.39% to 1978.35 Tuesday, marking its best start to March ever, according to Bespoke Investment Group. The large-company stock index topped its prior first-day March record gain of 2.26% in 2002.

From a seasonalit­y standpoint, the stock market rally came right on schedule as March historical­ly has been a strong month for stocks. The combined gains in March and April rank No. 1 going back 50 years, with the average two-month advance clocking in at 2.66%, Bespoke says.

“In terms of seasonal moves, March does typically kick off what is the strongest two-month stretch of the calendar, so seasonals could have played some roll in the rally,” Bespoke co-founder Paul Hickey told USA TODAY.

“What’s more important, though, is the improved economic data in the ISM manufactur­ing report and constructi­on spending. With back-to-back increases in the manufactur­ing index, worries over the economy have diminished — at least temporaril­y.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States