Market bulls shouldn't give up hope for 2022 stock performance despite this year's rough first half, according to LPL Financial chief market strategist Ryan Detrick, who cited three promising signs for investors.
First, historical trends suggest the market may rebound in the second half after the year's rocky start for investors, he said in a commentary Wednesday titled "3 Reasons It Is So Bad It Is Good."
"The S&P 500 index is down 21% for the year, which would be the worst first half to any year since 1970," Detrick said. "As bad as that has been for investors, the good news is previous years that were down at least 15% at the midway point to the year saw the final six months higher every single time, with an average return of nearly 24%."
Detrick looked back 90 years to show that in years when the S&P 500 was sharply down at the end of June, stocks rallied in the second half, although they didn't typically wipe away all the earlier losses.
In 1932, the index was down 45.4% on June 30, then achieved 56.2% returns for the rest of the year. In 1962, the S&P 500 was off 23.5% at midyear, then rallied by 15.3% in the subsequent six months, Detrick's chart showed.
