S&P 500 · March 17, 1980

The Monday after credit controls

-3.01%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

Six years back from the oil shock

near the end of it · 1974-10-03 → 1980-07-17, +94.99% over the whole period

What happened that day?

17 March 1980 — the S&P 500 fell 3.01% to close at 102.26
The previous Friday the government had announced an anti-inflation programme whose centrepiece was direct controls on consumer credit
Block the borrowing and spending falls, which brings prices down. It also takes corporate revenue down with it
Interest rates were already at historic highs. The central bank had pushed the price of money as far as it would go to break inflation
With credit controls added on top, the market treated a recession as settled
The low of this episode came ten days later, on 27 March. From the mid-February high the fall was 17.07%
The controls were withdrawn within months, and the index made the loss back inside the year

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 put together from the public record; where a specific source was consulted it is listed above.