WhyItDropped

Nasdaq · November 7, 2012

The day after the election, the cliff came into view

-2.48%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

Two months of a stumbling giant and a blocked budget

near the end of it · 2012-09-14 → 2012-11-15, -10.90% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • The Nasdaq fell 2.48% on the day, the day after the US election
  • The vote was over and the make-up of Congress was unchanged, meaning a president and a House majority from different parties
  • Tax cuts were due to expire at year end and spending cuts to start automatically. It was called the fiscal cliff
  • Without a deal, taxes rise and spending falls and the economy turns. And the parties who had to make that deal were opposed
  • At the same time the Nasdaq's largest member was struggling over the mapping service on its new phone. Its weight was enough to drag the index
  • 15 November was the bottom, and a year-end deal started a long advance

Sources

Every figure on this page is recomputed from the original daily closing prices and checked against them at build time. The account of what happened is written from the sources listed above.