From an article sent to me this morning:
Yankees in First Shows Winning Plan Without Bonds: Chart of Day
2009-08-12 04:00:47.1 GMT
By Mason Levinson and Jeff Kearns
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The New York Yankees' front-running
status might lead to some joyous months in the Bronx and
profitable ones on Wall Street.'
The CHART OF THE DAY compares the historical performance of
the S&P 500 Index, the benchmark index for American equities,
from Aug. 12 to year's end when the Yankees are in first place,
as they are today, to when they trail.
During the 33 years since 1928 that the Major League
Baseball team led its division on Aug. 12, the S&P 500 had
average gains of 3.3 percent for the remainder of the year.
That's five times higher than the 0.64 percent average gains the
index had during the 48 seasons the Yankees weren't in first
place.
"As a Yankees fan I can tell you why that happens: because
the Yankees are always in the lead and the market goes up two-
thirds of the time," said Richard Bernstein, chief investment
officer of New York-based Richard Bernstein Capital Management
LLC and former chief investment strategist of Merrill Lynch &
Co. "You can put it up there with such other notable buy
signals as who wins the Super Bowl.
"One shouldn't underestimate the strength of spurious
correlations."
The Yankees, following a four-game sweep of division rival
Boston last weekend, led the Red Sox by 5 1/2 games through
Aug. 10 in the American League East.
Of the Bronx, New York , team's 26 World Series titles, 22
came after holding a first-place lead on Aug. 12.
--With assistance from Rodney Yap in Los Angeles .
Editors: Michael Sillup, Jay Beberman
Kind of cool, eh? Support the Yankees, support the economy and all is right in the world!
