Presidential administration and day‐of‐the‐week effects in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index

In a recent study, Liano, Liano and Manakyan (1999) conclude that the pattern of day‐of‐the‐week effects in stock indices differs between Democratic administrations and Republican administrations. Specifically, the weekend effect is more pronounced during Republican administrations. This paper re‐examines this issue. It incorporates into the analysis the implications of Connolly's (1989) findings that the weekend effect has disappeared since 1975. We confirm Connolly's results. However, contrary to Liano et al. (1999), we conclude that day‐of‐the‐week effects are not significantly moderated by the political administration.