S&P 500 · October 11, 1990
The Gulf War bear market
-19.92%
peak-to-trough, the whole slide
62 trading days · 1990-07-16 → 1990-10-11
back to the old high on 1991-02-13
What happened that day?
- From the 16 July 1990 peak to the 11 October low the S&P 500 fell 19.92% — 62 trading days
- It began on 2 August when Iraq invaded Kuwait. Fear of losing Middle East supply sent oil prices up
- The US economy was already cooling, and the savings-and-loan collapse had left the financial sector weak
- Higher oil pushed up inflation, which made it hard for the Fed to cut rates to support growth
- When the coalition operation succeeded quickly in January 1991 and oil settled, the market turned straight back up
- The old high returned on 13 February 1991 — four months
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.