Most investors know that certain days of the week are better for stocks than others. Over the past 10 years, for example, the S&P 500 index has fared best on Wednesdays and worst on Tuesdays, with median returns of 0.10% and 0.00%, respectively. These differences, of course, are relatively small. But some rather more noteworthy divergences crop up when you break down the patterns by sector.
In that case, Friday happens to be the best day of the week, both in absolute terms and relative to the market, when the median daily performance of all the various S&P 500 economic sectors are taken into account. The winning group? Energy, with an average return of 0.21% and 0.17%, respectively. Coming in a close second, in nominal terms at least, is the information technology group, with a gain of 0.21% on Wednesdays and 0.20% on Mondays.
As far as which day of the week is the worst for any particular sector, there are two contenders for the crown. In absolute terms, Monday has been the laggard, with the energy sector declining by an average of 5 basis points over the course of the past decade. In terms of relative performance, however, Wednesdays are at the bottom, dragged down by the -0.12% median return of financial shares.
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