Credit Suisse Says The Market's January Performance Was 6th Worst Since 1970

Midday Tuesday the SPDR Trust S&P 500 ETF SPY traded down roughly 1.50 percent and Barclays iPath S&P 500 Short-Term Vix ETF VXX gained just over 6 percent. January was a volatile month for the market with SPY falling as almost 10 percent. The final eight trading days saw SPY add back nearly 7 percent to finish the month basically unchanged.

Credit Suisse midday on Tuesday notes that January’s average daily dollar value traded in the US was the 6th highest monthly average for January at $343 billion. Volatility swelled in January, with 10 out of 19 days seeing a intraday S&P 500 move of at least 2 percent.

Credit Suisse's parting comments highlight that 18 January's since 1970 have been down months (not including Jan 2016) and nine times the index finished the year up.  We're 50-50 at this point which should signal the uncertainty even Wall Street veterans embody regarding expectations for 2016.

Midday SPY is down roughly 1.60 percent and VXX is up roughly 5 percent.