the dow jones industrial average is poised to close out one of its best months in its 126year industry this week as investors shake off their worst recession frights ahead of halloween – but the historic gain may be little more than a mirage as the dow remains on pace for its worst year since 2008 and other major stock indexes continue to slump the dow rose 12 or 385 points thursday after a strong thirdquarter gross domestic product reading and is up 12 so far in october that would be the secondbest month on a percentage basis over the last 30 years trailing only april 2020 coming on the heels of the index’s worst september in 20 years this would be the biggest october gain since the index’s founding in 1896 according to carson group analyst ryan detrick noting the only other 10 october gains for the dow came in 1982 and 2002 both breaking bear markets however october has been a far more pedestrian month for other oftcited indexes the techheavy nasdaq is up only 3 while the sp 500 is up 7 the dow tracks 30 large public companies weighted on share price meaning other indexes likely provide a more accurate view of the market despite the dow’s preeminence the dow is still down 12 yeartodate though still far better than the sp and nasdaq’s 20 and 31 respective 2022 declines stocks’ dismal year is largely thanks to aggressive interest rate hikes from the federal reserve in its bid to bring down inflation and aggressive monetary policy typically causes a decline in the market the last two days have been far from rosy for investors heavily exposed to technology stocks due to precipitous drops from tech giants like meta microsoft and alphabet goldman sachs strategists gave a bleak view in a tuesday note to clients projecting the sp could dip nearly 25 further in the most hawkish recession scenario “the broader case for us equities does not look very strong and the normal conditions for an equity trough are not clearly visible yet” goldman reasoned october marked the beginning of the fourth quarter which typically brings strong returns the sp has risen about 5 on average during the period since 1988 economy survives technical recession—but worst could come next year experts warn forbes here’s how big tech stocks have performed in 2022 as faang softens its bite forbes