Recent Evidence On Friday The Thirteenth Effect In U.S. Stock Returns

Abstract

We examine Friday the thirteenth effect in U.S. stock returns from January 1950 to December 2007.  Our results reveal that stock returns on Friday the thirteenth are not significantly lower than that of other Fridays for the overall period.  When we examine the differences by decades, we find that Friday the thirteenth returns are significantly lower than returns of other Fridays in only one out of the six sub-periods.  We therefore conclude that U.S stock returns do not show evidence of a Friday the thirteenth effect.