The Dow Jones Transportation Average on Friday produced its lengthiest series of losses since 1972, highlighting a recent slump that has taken hold of the broader stock market.
The Dow transports DJT, -0.45% created by Charles Dow in 1884 (the Dow Jones Industrial Average was formed in 1896), has fallen in 11 consecutive sessions. The 135-year-old index has only logged five periods in which it declined for 11 consecutive sessions, and five points where it has registered a 12-day drop, according to Dow Jones Market Data and S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Check out the complete table of declines of at least 10 sessions below:
The recent skid for the closely watched gauge is significant because it is often used as a proxy for the health of the overall economy, and the stumble comes amid increased fretting over the health of the global economy.
Fears that a contraction abroad may spillover into the U.S. were heightened early Friday after American businesses in February created the fewest number of new jobs in 17 months, a comparatively paltry 20,000 payroll additions on the month after averaging some 200,000 jobs over the past year.
Read: ‘Don’t hit panic’ — economists find the jobs report wasn’t as bad as 20,000 headline suggests
That employment data came a day after the European Central Bank unfurled a fresh batch of bank stimulus to address signs of weakness in the eurozone economy.
Concerns about a knock-on effect domestically and unresolved U.S.-China tariff dispute intensified on Friday, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.09% to its fifth straight day of losses, and a decline in eight of the last nine sessions. On top of that, news out of China showing that the second-largest economy reported a 20% drop in February exports on the heels of a 9.1% gain in January, didn’t exactly incite a buying mood on Wall Street.
The benchmark reflects the performance of 20 large transportation companies, ranging from railroad operators to airlines. According to proponents of the century-old Dow Theory, the gauge, along with the Dow industrials, tends to be an accurate barometer of domestic economic health.
Alaska Air Group Inc. ALK, -0.59% (off 9.4% year to date), United Continental Holdings Inc. UAL, -0.25% (2% lower year to date), Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL, +0.00% (down 1.5% so far in 2019), American Airlines Group Inc. AAL, -0.96% (slipping 0.7% in the first three months of the year) and JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU, -0.68% (down 0.3% in 2019), are the worst performers among the Dow transports.
For the week, the Dow industrials lost 2.2% drop, the S&P 500 SPX, -0.21% shed 2.2% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, -0.18% declined 2.5%, snapping a 10-week win streak in the process. Transports, meanwhile, lost 3.3% for the week.
All that said, markets also are coming off a brisk pace of gains to start the year, with the Dow and S&P 500 still boasting a year-to-date return of more than 9%, the Nasdaq up 11.7% thus far in 2019, and transports up 10.3% in the first three months of the year, despite the index’s recent slide.
Check out: Why the ECB’s surprise policy moves sent shivers through global stock markets
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