Nasdaq · December 11, 1984
A day in the year the PC boom cooled
-4.56%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
After the shakeout
early in it · 1984-07-25 → 1986-01-07, +46.34% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- The Nasdaq fell 4.56% to close at 238.80. No single trigger for the day could be pinned down
- 1984 was the year personal computers first stopped selling. Too many makers had crowded in over the preceding years
- The Nasdaq is where those companies were listed, so when the cycle turned the index turned with it
- When inventory piles up and prices have to be cut, earnings guidance keeps getting lowered — and the index moves each time
- The correction itself was only 6.85% deep. The daily move was large all the same
- Once the shakeout finished, the survivors divided the market between them and the recovery began
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 put together from the public record; where a specific source was consulted it is listed above.