S&P 500 · October 23, 1974

Three weeks past the bottom

-2.87%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

Six years back from the oil shock

early in it · 1974-10-03 → 1980-07-17, +94.99% over the whole period

What happened that day?

23 October 1974 — the S&P 500 fell 2.87% to close at 71.03. No single cause can be pinned to the day
The low of this episode was three weeks behind, on 3 October. Days like this keep coming for a while after a bottom
In early October the index had risen hard over ten days. A big rise is followed by days that give some back
1974 put double-digit inflation and a worsening economy in the same year — a combination that leaves a central bank nowhere to move
That autumn unemployment was climbing fast and profit forecasts kept being cut
From the late-June high to the 3 October low the index fell 30.01%
The bear market ended that December. From early the next year the move went the other way, fast

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.