How Today's Drop for the Nasdaq Stacks Up to the Worst Days in Recent History
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It’s bad out there, but it isn’t that bad.
The Nasdaq was off about 3.5% in early trading Monday. That puts in the worst 2% of days over the past 30 years.
The worst day for the Nasdaq over the past 30 years was down 12.3% in March 2020. That was due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The next two worst days were related to the dot.com bust of the 2000s. Those sent the index down about 10%. Then the 2008 financial crisis led to the next two worst days, sending the index down about 9%. The Long Term Capital Management hedge fund disaster of 1998 led to the sixth worst day of the past 30 years, sending the index down 8.6%.
The other event that catalyzed a big one-day drop was the European sovereign debt crisis of 2011.
The recent declines don’t match up to any of those. That can be a sign things might not be as bad as feared. That isn’t much comfort.
About 30% of the Nasdaq’s largest drops happened on Monday. There is just something about Mondays.
