Beware Of Employment Report Fridays

This Friday's decline of 0.25% for the S&P 500 marked the eighth straight employment report Friday where the S&P 500 declined. Going back to 1998, there has never been a period where the index was up or down on eight straight report days. Over these eight Fridays, the S&P 500 has seen a cumulative decline of nearly 6%. Think how different the market's performance would have been in 2011 had those days never happened!

While the overall market has been weak on employment report days, we wondered whether there have been any stocks that have bucked the overall trend and put up good numbers on the last eight employment report days. On that note, we screened the S&P 1500 for stocks that have been up on more than half (5+) of the last eight employment report Fridays and also averaged positive returns over all eight days. Incredibly, only thirteen stocks, or less than 1% of the index, met these two criteria.

So who are the lucky thirteen? The table below highlights each of these names. Number one on the list is Hansen Natural (HANS), which has averaged a gain of 2.39% and been up on six of the last eight employment report days. The only other name on the list which is even averaging a gain of more than 1% is Higher One (ONE), which has gained an average of 1.02% and been up on five out of eight employment report Fridays. One other notable name on the list is Best Buy (BBY). Although the stock cannot seem to get out of its own way, it has actually been up on six out of the last eight employment report Fridays, averaging a gain of 0.87%.