February 17, 2009
It was just a week ago that the three indices dropped more than four percent; today the losses were a bit smaller. The DJIA decline was just - 3.79 percent, whereas the S&P500 was off -4.56 percent and the NASDAQ retreated -4.15 percent.
Ranking todays declines by size, it was the 21st worst showing for the S&P500, the 41st for the DJIA and the 69th for the NASDAQ. Except for the S&P500, these were not as high up the list as a week ago.
Moreover, while this was the second loss in a row for the NASDAQ and the S&P500, today marked the third straight decline for the DJIA. This combination occurred only 24 times in our record, which goes back to 1950. Yet none came before 1979, and only five were earlier than 1991. The frequency has increased since January 2000, with 12 such days in this century, and five during the last 11 months.
In the past, prices continued down on the following day, more often that they recovered. The DJIA has the best showing with 11 increases compared to 12 decreases. The S&P500, however, has only 9 gains but 14 declines on the next day, while the NASDAQ has 15 declines and only 8 increases.
DJIA -4.62 percent
NASDAQ -4.15 percent
S&P500 -4.56 percent