Nasdaq · August 4, 2011
The plunge three days before the downgrade
-5.08%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
Five months around a downgrade
midway through · 2011-04-29 → 2011-10-03, -18.71% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- The Nasdaq fell 5.08% on the day
- It came just after the US had fought for months over its debt limit and agreed only at the deadline. Prices fell despite the deal
- The terms cut spending sharply, and the calculation was that this was bad for the economy
- At the same time Italian and Spanish borrowing costs were jumping in Europe. These were far larger countries than Greece
- The European Central Bank met that day and did less than the market had hoped
- Three days later a rating agency cut the US government's grade for the first time ever
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.