June 6, 2008
Blaming this Black Friday on the run up in oil prices or the increase in the unemployment rate is tempting, but the day started with stock prices heading down toward the minus one percent level almost from the opening bell.
The last time the DJIA and the S&P500 lost more than three percent in one day was on March 24, 2003. Todays trouncing was not as bad: the DJIA fell -3.13 percent and the S&P500 dropped 3.09 percent.
The NASDAQ decline was a more moderate -2.96 percent; nevertheless, its the steepest since September 2003; when the number was -3.05 percent.
To summarize, there are just two days since January 2000 that the DJIA lost more in one day; and only three for the S&P500. The NASDAQ, on the other hand, even when correcting for the web excesses, fell deeper than -2.96 percent ten times in this century.
As for the weekly comparison, the NASDAQ was off -1.91 percent from last Friday; yet it was its eighths worst week of the year. The S&P500 dropped -2.94 percent, scoring its sixths deepest decline in 2008. But the DJIAs weekly decline is poorest of all: losing -3.38 percent, the fifth poorest performance of the year.
DJIA -3.13 percent
NASDAQ -2.96 percent
S&P500 -3.09 percent