Nasdaq · August 6, 1990
Right after the invasion of Kuwait
-4.19%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The junk bond bust and the Gulf War
near the end of it · 1989-10-09 → 1990-10-16, -33.00% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- The Nasdaq fell 4.19% on the day
- Four days earlier Iraq had invaded Kuwait. Between them the two hold a large share of world oil reserves, and the price surged
- This was the day the UN voted economic sanctions on Iraq, making clear the affair would not end quickly
- The US economy was already sliding into recession that summer. The oil shock landed on top of it
- At the same time the savings and loan failures and the collapse of the junk bond market were under way. When funding tightens, smaller companies are hit first
- That is why the Nasdaq fell more than the S&P 500. It lost more than a third across this phase
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.