--- title: After a Strong Month for Stocks, Here's Where the Market Could Be Heading in February description: Where is the stock market heading? Historical trends indicate that stocks will rise in February 2023, after a strong performance in January. authors: - name: Sarah Hansen role: Senior Writer url: https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/ bio: Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes. education: Northwestern University, New York University at_money_since: 2021 articles: 347 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/ former_staff: true editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2023-02-02T12:00:59.000Z' modified: '2024-05-08T06:00:36.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - News - stocks word_count: 359 canonical: https://money.com/where-stock-market-heading-february-2023/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange](https://img.money.com/2023/02/News-2023-February-Stocks-Prediction.jpg) After [major losses](https://money.com/investor-tips-after-stocks-worst-year/) for the [stock market](https://money.com/how-to-buy-stocks/) in 2022, January brought a serious rebound for investors. The [S&P 500](https://money.com/how-to-invest-in-sp500/) is up 6% since the beginning of the year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 1.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which struggled the most and was down some 30% in 2022, ended the month with gains of more than 11%. But will the rally continue? Here’s what history says about how the market tends to perform in February. ## What the data shows A recent analysis by Bespoke Investment Group shows that historically, the stock market tends to gain in the first half of the month of February and lose in the second half. On average, the gains tend to be slightly larger than the losses: - Between 1985 and 2022, the S&P 500 ended the month of February up 0.37%. - Over the last 10 years, that gain rose to 0.43%. In the years when the market does well in January, Bespoke found, those losses in the second half of February tend to be smaller. ## What experts say That bodes well for the stock market in the month to come, says Brad McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network. - McMillan points to the fact that the major risks to the market that have been worrying investors — [high interest rates](https://money.com/stocks-rise-fed-interest-rate-comments/), the potential for a [debt default](https://money.com/stock-prices-crater-default-debt/) and a [recession](https://money.com/what-recession-would-mean-for-stock-market/) — are likely to ease over the course of the year. - “In six months things are likely to look much better than they do now in most ways, giving the markets a boost toward year-end,” McMillan wrote in a recent blog post. ## Keep in mind No one has a crystal ball when it comes to the stock market. If you’re investing for the long term, financial experts generally recommend creating plan that aligns with your goals and risk tolerance and sticking with it — regardless of month-to-month [fluctuations in the market](https://money.com/stock-market-volatility-impulse-trades-study/). ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/where-stock-market-heading-february-2023/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Stock Market", "item": "https://money.com/stock-market/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "After a Strong Month for Stocks, Here's Where the Market Could Be Heading in February" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/where-stock-market-heading-february-2023/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/where-stock-market-heading-february-2023/", "name": "After a Strong Month for Stocks, Here's Where the Market Could Be Heading in February", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2023-02-02T12:00:59.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/where-stock-market-heading-february-2023/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/where-stock-market-heading-february-2023/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-08T06:00:36.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "After a Strong Month for Stocks, Here's Where the Market Could Be Heading in February", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2023/02/News-2023-February-Stocks-Prediction.jpg", "width": 3934, "height": 2623, "caption": "News-2023-February-Stocks-Prediction" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sarah Hansen", "url": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/sarah-hansen/#author", "description": "Sarah Hansen is a senior writer at Money covering all things personal finance. Previously, she covered economic policy and capital markets on the breaking news desk at Forbes.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2021/10/a_sarah-hansen.jpg?quality=85&w=400&h=440&crop=1", "email": "sarah.hansen@money.com", "alumniOf": "Northwestern University, New York University", "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-m-hansen/" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2023-02-02T12:00:59.000Z", "description": "Where is the stock market heading? Historical trends indicate that stocks will rise in February 2023, after a strong performance in January.", "abstract": "Where is the stock market heading? Historical trends indicate that stocks will rise in February 2023, after a strong performance in January.", "@id": "https://money.com/where-stock-market-heading-february-2023/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-08T06:00:36.000Z", "editor": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "wordCount": 359, "keywords": [ "News", "stocks" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Stock market", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Investment", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment" ] } ] } ] } ```