Birthdays- Market bottoms and tops

Today marks the 12 month anniversary of the market bottom for the S&P 500 index. The 70% rise from March 9 last year puts this among the best 12 month timeframes since the index was created in the 1950's. In retrospect, given the overall fragility of the economy this is a feat worthy of celebration.

Of further interest, tomorrow will mark the 10 year anniversary of the Nasdaq index (tech bubble) peak. March 2000 began a 31 month long decline finally bottoming in October 2002 . The Nasdaq is now more than double that bottom but still far off the March 2000 peak.