Nasdaq · December 20, 2000
December 2000 warnings
-7.12%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
Nine months down without a rest
midway through · 2000-07-17 → 2001-04-04, -61.66% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- On 20 December 2000 the Nasdaq fell 7.12% in a single day
- It was nine months into the decline from the March peak, and profit warnings arrived in a rush at year end
- A profit warning is a company telling you in advance that the numbers will be worse than expected. December is when they cluster
- By now it was not only internet firms — computer and telecom equipment makers were warning too
- Equipment and inventory over-bought during the boom was still sitting there, so new orders stopped
- A surprise Fed cut two weeks later produced a big bounce, but the decline ran into 2002
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.