S&P 500 · January 4, 2000
The first trading day of 2000
-3.83%
single-day change vs previous close
What happened that day?
- On 4 January 2000 the S&P 500 fell 3.83%, on the second session of the new year
- Technology had risen almost without pause for the previous two months
- Part of what fuelled that was the calendar. Worried computers would misread the year 2000, the Fed had pushed extra cash into the system
- The year turned without incident, so that cash was due to be withdrawn — and talk of rate rises came back at the same time
- January also brings the selling that waited. Sell in December and the tax falls in that year; sell in January and it falls in the next
- The Nasdaq fell far more that day. The further it had run, the more it gave back
- In this stretch the index was down 9.25% from its peak
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.