Stocks may have been shaky in March and the market rally may have narrowed but the S&P 500 remains in an uptrend, having never once closed below its December low during the first quarter. That’s bullish, according to the Carson Group’s Ryan Detrick.

He found 36 instances where the index stayed above its December low for all of the next quarter. On 34 occasions, stocks ended the year higher, posting average gains of 18.6 per cent.

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First-quarter strength could be swaying the data so Detrick also examined what happened to stocks over the final nine months of the year.

Again, the results are bullish with stocks enjoying average gains of 11.1 per cent and gaining on 33 out of 36 occasions. Is this a fluke or evidence of the power of trend and momentum? Investors will be hoping the latter is the case.