S&P 500 · March 24, 2020

The day after the Fed went unlimited

+9.38%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The COVID rebound

early in it · 2020-03-23 → 2020-08-18, +51.51% over the whole period

What happened that day?

On 24 March 2020 the S&P 500 rose 9.38% in a single day
The day before, 23 March, had been the low of the COVID crash
The day before, on 23 March, the Fed said it would buy Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities without limit, and set out plans to buy corporate debt as well
Shares fell further on the day of the announcement, which is what made it the bottom; the turn came the day after. Policy arriving does not turn prices at once
The point was that the scenario where companies fail because funding dries up went away. Even with revenue at zero, they could hold on
Congress was debating a large relief package at the same time, so support was coming from both fiscal and monetary sides
The rebound started here and the old high was back on 18 August

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.