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Does the Turn-of-the-Month Effect Work for Sectors?

Steve LeCompte | | Posted in: Calendar Effects

A reader inquired whether the Turn-of-the-Month Effect, a concentration of positive stock market returns around the turns of calendar months, works for U.S. stock market sectors. To investigate, we measure turn-of-the-month (TOTM) returns for the nine sector exchange-traded funds (ETF) defined by the Select Sector Standard & Poor's Depository Receipts (SPDR), all of which have traded since December 1998:

  • Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB)
  • Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE)
  • Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF)
  • Industrial Select Sector SPDR (XLI)
  • Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK)
  • Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP)
  • Utilities Select Sector SPDR (XLU)
  • Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV)
  • Consumer Discretionary Select SPDR (XLY)

We define TOTM as the eight-trading day interval from the close five trading days before the first trading day of a month to the close on the fourth trading day of the month. Using daily dividend-adjusted closes for the sector ETFs and for SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) as a benchmark from December 1998 through late September 2025, we find that:

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