Nasdaq · May 23, 2000
The eleven weeks when the bubble first broke
-37.32%
peak-to-trough, the whole slide
51 trading days · 2000-03-10 → 2000-05-23
still below that peak today
What happened that day?
- From the record high on 10 March 2000 to 23 May, the Nasdaq fell 37.32% over 51 trading days
- The close on 10 March was above five thousand. That level would not be seen again for fifteen years
- The first trigger was not company results but interest rates. The Fed was raising them steadily to hold down inflation
- The less profit a company made, the more it fell. Such shares are priced on distant future profits, and higher rates shrink what that future is worth today
- A single heavy fall on 14 April helped take nearly a quarter off the index in one week
- Many still saw it as a correction at this stage. It was in fact the start of a decline lasting two and a half years
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.