WhyItDropped

Nasdaq · January 2, 2003

New year's first day, with factories reviving

+3.69%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

Four months of waiting for a war

midway through · 2002-11-27 → 2003-03-11, -14.55% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • The Nasdaq rose 3.69% on the day, the first session of 2003
  • A survey of US manufacturing came in above expectations. It works by asking factory purchasing managers directly whether orders have grown
  • The direction mattered more than the level. After more than two years of only worsening, it turned for the first time
  • This counted for technology in particular. When factories run again, orders for equipment and components follow
  • The bounce did not last two months, though. Shares slid again as war drew close

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.