There’s still time left in the trading day which means that anything can happen, but the equity market is on pace to close out the week with a gain or loss of 1%+ for the 22nd time this year. Going back to 1953 when the five-trading day week started on the NYSE, there have only been four other years where the S&P 500 rallied or declined at least 1% on the final trading day of the week (there have been another six where there were 20). The only years where there were more 1% moves to close out the week were 1974 (23), 2000 (25), 2002 (23), and 2008 (26). Keep in mind, though, that while this year is just four off the record-high pace, there are still 16 weeks left in the year! The year is only two-thirds complete, but already Fridays have seen a lot of action.

To make more of an apples-to-apples comparison, on a percentage basis, 61% of all weeks this year have closed out with a one-day move of at least 1%. Granted, it’s not a full year of prices yet, but in prior years since 1953, there was never a year where the S&P 500 closed out the trading week with a gain or loss of at least 1% more than half of the time. In 2008, half of all weeks ended with moves of that magnitude while the percentage in 2000 was 48.1%, and 1974 and 2002 each closed out the week with 1%+ moves 44% of the time. These levels of volatility are a far cry from a year like 2017 when there wasn’t a single Friday that the S&P 500 rallied or declined 1%.  

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