Traders “taking their yearly profits” does not affect the market like this; such events would already be priced into the market. The Dow is not a crypto exchange.

> I suspect this is due to traders taking their yearly profits

Thought that happened in December, not February. A short year for traders this year, I guess.

(unintentional pun)

Nope, Nov through January are historically great months for stocks with February usually being one of the worst. One cause of this may be fiscal tax years not necessarily aligning with calendar tax years.

Edit: One of the more interesting and notable causes is that many fund managers and investment advisors will actually rebalance portfolios so that at years end it appears they were holding the biggest winner stocks/assets. Basically a marketing trick.

It's due to interest rates and bond yields.

https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2018-02-05/stock-i...