Historic investment performance in the month of February

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February frequently is a difficult month for investors. Thackray’s 2012 Investor’s Guide notes that from 1950 to 2010, February was the second weakest month of the year for U.S. equity markets (September is the weakest). The S&P 500 has recorded an average loss per period of 0.2% and was positive only 52% of the time. During the past 10 periods, average return per period for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was -0.76%, the S&P 500 Index fell 1.12%, the NASDAQ Composite Index dropped 1.88% and the Russell 2000 Index dropped 1.11%. The TSX Composite Index bucked the trend by gaining1.16% per period.

Best performing sectors during the past 20 periods were Materials (1.1%) and Energy (0.9%). Worst performing sectors were Telecom (-1.9%) and Utilities (-1.4%). Best performing subsectors during the past 20 periods were Semiconductors (2.2%) and Metal & Mining (1.8%) and worst performing subsectors were Biotech (-1.8%) and Pharmaceuticals (-1.4%).

Other sectors, equity markets and commodities show the following 10 year performance: