S&P 500 · February 29, 2008
February, when the freeze showed
-2.71%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The Global Financial Crisis bear market
early in it · 2007-10-09 → 2009-03-09, -56.78% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- On 29 February 2008 the S&P 500 fell 2.71%
- Investment firms were being asked to repay borrowings and were selling assets in a hurry
- Forced selling lowers prices, lower prices shrink collateral, and more repayment demands follow. The loop had started
- That structure brought down a large investment bank two weeks later
- No single trigger can be pinned to this day
- In this stretch the index was 16.24% below its peak
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.