WhyItDropped

Nasdaq · March 24, 2020

The Nasdaq after the Fed went unlimited

+8.12%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The Nasdaq's COVID rebound

early in it · 2020-03-23 → 2020-06-08, +44.66% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • On 24 March 2020 the Nasdaq rose 8.12% in a single day
  • The day before, 23 March, was the low of the COVID crash
  • The Fed announced unlimited buying of Treasuries and mortgage bonds, plus corporate debt
  • The key was that the scenario of companies failing for lack of funding disappeared
  • With rates pinned at zero, distant future profits are worth more today, so growth stocks reacted hardest
  • The Nasdaq regained its old high on 8 June — two and a half months, faster than any other index

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.