USMarketView

September 29, 2008

Today the NASDAQ fell -9.14 percent, suffering the worst drop in seven years. The S&P500 experienced a similar plunge, -8.79 percent. No day has been as bad as this since 2001. Moreover, the NASDAQ closed further down than today only two times in its history. This is true also for the S&P500: just two other, worse losses since 1950.

The DJIA performance, almost as bad at - 6.98 percent, however has dropped this much four other times in the past 58 years.

The House vote to deny help for the strained financial sector increased the uncertainty hanging over the financial, and Main Street, future. The nation has now entered a territory not experienced before. Even the debacle of the 1930s provides guidelines for what might happen.

Nevertheless, looking at the record and noting the next day’s performance after these indices lost just five percent, yields the following insight. The NASDAQ shows the worst prospective, falling 15 times and increasing 12 times on the following day. The S&P500 has a more favorable outlook posting only two further declines but scoring nine increases. The DJIA provides the most comfort: it moved higher in nine sessions, and fell only once, and that was by just a fraction.

DJIA -6.98 percent

NASDAQ… -9.14 percent

S&P500 -8.79 percent

This entry was posted on Monday, September 29th, 2008 at 12 042008000000Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:07:22 +0000 and is filed under Market Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.