Recent market price weakness comes as investors are grappling with the increasing geopolitical threat from North Korea and powerful Atlantic storms barreling toward the U.S. Jeff Hirsch in a recent issue of the Almanac Trader published the chart below and discusses how over the last 21 years the market’s performance in September has been turbulent. DJIA recorded back-to-back losses in 2001 and 2002 of 11.1% and 12.4% respectively, but DJIA was up 7.7% in 2010. Average losses range from 0.06% by Nasdaq to a 0.69% decline by DJIA.

Based upon the chart below September typically begins well and all five indexes generally trade choppily higher until around the 15th trading day of the month which is around triple-witching day. From this point until the month closes, DJIA, S&P 500, Nasdaq, Russell 1000 and 2000 give back any early-month gains and drift into the red.