S&P 500 · November 19, 1973

The autumn the oil stopped

-3.05%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The 1973–74 oil shock bear market

midway through · 1973-01-11 → 1974-10-03, -48.20% over the whole period

What happened that day?

19 November 1973 — the S&P 500 fell 3.05% to close at 100.71. No single cause can be pinned to the day
In October the Middle Eastern producers had cut off oil to the United States. By November that was turning into an actual shortage
Without fuel, factories stop and freight gets dearer. Rising prices alongside falling output starts here
American politics was shaking at the same time. An investigation into the president was the daily news
Which of the two pulled the trigger that day cannot be separated out. Both had been running for months
The next session fell as well. This was the middle of an episode, not a one-day reaction
From the mid-October high to the February 1974 low the index fell 18.65%

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.