Summer Solstice Blues: Market History Of Underperformance On Longest Day Of The Year

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The summer solstice, Thursday, June 20, is the year's longest day. Kids and adults alike enjoy the sunshine (or in this year's case, a heatwave).

But how do the markets generally perform?

The Data: In the last 10 years, according to Yahoo Finance, the summer solstice has fallen on a day when the financial markets are open seven times.

During those seven days, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) has fallen on six out of the last seven summer solstices since 2013.

On June 20:

  • 2013, the S&P 500 fell 1.5%
  • 2016, the S&P 500 dropped 0.5%.
On June 21:

  • 2017, the S&P 500 cooled by 0.2%.
  • 2018, the S&P 500 posted losses of 0.6%.
  • 2019, the S&P 500 fell by 0.04%.
  • 2023, the S&P 500 fell by 0.3%
The one exception to the rule came in 2022: the S&P 500 posted gains of 0.8% on the year's longest day.

Price Action: Will the market's summer solstice blues continue in 2024? It will be a close call. At the time of writing, the SPY ETF is trading at $548.80, up by 0.06%.