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S&P 500 returns for Thanksgiving week, from 1978 – 2020

 

This chart shows the average returns for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and the Entire week for thanksgiving and excluding thanksgiving, from January 4, 1978, to December 31, 2020. The average returns for Thanksgiving Monday is 0.16%, while the average returns for Mondays Ex-Thanksgiving is 0.06%. The average returns for Thanksgiving Tuesday is -0.02%, while the average returns for Tuesdays Ex-Thanksgiving is 0%. The average returns for Thanksgiving Wednesday is 0.27%, while the average returns for Wednesdays Ex-Thanksgiving is 0.05%. The average returns for Thanksgiving Friday is 0.17%, while the average returns for Fridays Ex-Thanksgiving is 0.1%. Finally, the average return for the Thanksgiving week is 0.15%, while the average return for the week Ex-Thanksgiving is 0.05%.

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Top Market Takeaways Quick shot: Stock market history says, Happy Thanksgiving!

Updated Nov 24, 2021
The Know Top Market Takeaway

We all have things to be thankful for, and investors might be grateful for how the stock market tends to behave around turkey day. Since 1978, the S&P 500 average return for Thanksgiving week has outperformed the average return of every other week.

 

Over the past 42 years, Thanksgiving week has brought positive stock market returns around 67% of the time. As consumers gear up for Black Friday and the general holiday shopping season, personal consumption tends to get a boost. Strong demand begets revenues for the companies we invest in, and that can lead to earnings growth.

 

As we’ve discussed before, we expect that earnings growth to continue to push markets higher in the year ahead. Tomorrow may be all about the turkey, but don’t let all the tryptophan cause you to sleep on the opportunity to get (and stay) invested.

STOCK MARKET SHOWS SOLID PERFORMANCE DURING THE THANKSGIVING WEEK

Bar chart of S&P 500 returns during Thanksgiving vs not Thanksgiving week
Source: J.P. Morgan Private Bank analysis using data from FactSet.
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All market data from Bloomberg Finance L.P., 11/23/21.

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