In recent years, Labor Day has become the unofficial end of
summer and the three-day weekend has become prime vacation time for many.
Business activity ahead of the holiday was more energetic in the old days. From
1950 through 1977 the three days before Labor Day pushed the DJIA higher in 23
of 28 years.
Since then the days leading
up to the long weekend have become less bullish. In the last 21 years, Friday
has been the weakest on average with declines across all four indexes. However,
Wednesday has outperformed over the years with DJIA, S&P 500, NASDAQ, and
Russell 2000 all up two-thirds of the time or better. Average gains on
Wednesday range from 0.40% by DJIA to 0.67% by Russell 2000.