Nasdaq · October 5, 1998

Three days before the bottom

-4.85%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The Russia shock on the Nasdaq

near the end of it · 1998-07-20 → 1998-10-08, -29.55% over the whole period

What happened that day?

The Nasdaq fell 4.85% to close at 1,536.69. No single trigger for the day could be pinned down
The market was in a 29.55% slide from its July high to the low of 8 October, and this was near the end of it
It started in the summer. Russia's default shook everything that was carrying risk, all at once
In September a large hedge fund collapsed and a group of banks absorbed it. Lenders stayed pulled back
In stretches like this, big moves happen with no particular news — there are sellers who must sell and nobody on the other side
The bottom came three days later, on 8 October, and what turned it was a rate cut the following week

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.