As another holiday season fades into memory, and we return to our desks — perhaps a little flabbier and a little hungover — will investors think about carrying over their New Year resolutions into their stock portfolios?
Most New Year resolutions involve personal pledges to be healthier — lose weight and cut back on the booze. It’s a time of year when, traditionally, memberships of fitness clubs increase and sales of alcoholic beverages decline following the seasonal blowout.
But can this be translated into the market performances of the stocks involved?
On the first day of trading in 2024, and despite a decline of 0.8% on the S&P 500 index, Planet Fitness (NYSE:PLNT) shares were up 0.7%, while Anheuser-Busch Inbev (NYSE:BUD) fell 0.5%.
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Top Priorities: Losing Weight
In a Forbes Health survey last month, nearly half of those polled said that improving their fitness was a top priority for 2024. Meanwhile, a third said losing weight and improving their diet were also top priorities. Only 3% said drinking less alcohol was important to them.
But, typically, do New Year resolutions tend to last long enough to have any lasting impact on share prices?
Last year, between Dec. 30 and its peak on Feb. 2, the Planet Fitness share price climbed 9% — a fair performance in just over four weeks. However, it subsequently lost 48% in the broad market downturn, before rallying into the year-end. Over the year, Planet Fitness was down 7%.
Not much can be gleaned from this, however, as in the previous year Planet Fitness stock fell 6% in first four weeks following Dec. 31, 2021.
A similarly inconclusive picture emerges for stocks such as W.W. International (NASDAQ:WW), the owner of the WeightWatchers brand, and Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON), the home fitness group — both of whose shares were around 2% lower on Tuesday.
The Fleeting Nature Of NY Resolutions
It seems the main reason for this is that, although many of these companies see rises in membership in early January — often due to New Year promotions offering discounts for joining — they don’t tend to keep them for good.
The Forbes survey suggests that the intent to keep New Year resolutions lasts for only two to four months before goal-setters, disappointed with…
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