“Friday the 13th is still better than Monday the whatever.” No known person to cite, but LPL Research can’t disagree.
Tomorrow, August 13, will be the first Friday the 13th since November 2020. For most people, this is just another day, unless you suffer from triskaidekaphobia—the fear of the number 13. A fear of the actual day of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia.
“Fortunately, the unlucky nature of Friday the 13th hasn’t tripped up U.S. stocks in the past. In fact, the past two saw huge gains,” explained LPL Financial Chief Market Strategist Ryan Detrick. “In March 2020 the S&P 500 Index added a Friday the 13th record 9.3%, while it tacked on another 1.4% in November 2020. Black cats and broken mirrors might be scary on this day, but stocks shouldn’t be.”
As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, the S&P 500 Index does pretty well when a Friday the 13th takes place during August, a historically weak month. Then again, this is the 13th Friday the 13th in the month of August…
Taking things a step further, do we all hate Monday? Turns out stocks would agree, as this is by far the worst day of the week.
So what should worry us if black cats, umbrellas in the house, and Jason Voorhees shouldn’t? The next two months are historically two of the worst, so that could be something that could scare investors sooner than later.
Lastly, stocks really have had an incredible run. In fact, the S&P 500 is up nearly 99% from the March 2020 lows. Should it gain just a tad more, this will go down as the fastest double to start a new bull market ever, besting the previous fastest of just over two years during the last bull market.
Usually it takes many years to double, so this is another way of showing just how incredible this bull market has been. Although we remain bullish, we haven’t seen so much as a 5% pullback since last October, so one might want to continue to avoid walking under a ladder, but also be aware some type of well-deserved market pullback could be in the cards at any time.
Happy Friday the 13th!
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