Losses Reach Three Percent

September 4, 2008

Falling prices kept falling further, and as the day wore on, the NASDAQ dropped -3.20 percent at the close. The DJIA and the S&P500 declines although smaller, nevertheless, came to -2.99 percent.

This was the third deepest loss of 2008 for the NASDAQ while the other two indices suffered their 10th largest drop of the year.

Moreover, today’s declines are in the tenth percentile of all losses since January 2000. That is, only 10 percent of the 809 trading days in this century endured losses in excess of today’s.

This close is the fourth negative day in a row for the NASDAQ and the S&P500, and whereas the DJIA had a positive close yesterday that was a mere 14 percent, for analytical purposes, we consider it so close to zero, that it will be treated also as a four day drop.

In this version, then, today’s close represents the 14th time, since 2000, that four straight declines occurred.

The result, from looking at the past, to ascertain the changes on the following day, is somewhat reassuring. The NASDAQ had nine upticks, but only four declines, after falling four days in a row. The DJIA and the S&P500 were only a bit behind, with five declines but eight increases on the next day.


DJIA -2.99 percent

NASDAQ… -3.20 percent

S&P500 -2.99 percent

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