Nasdaq · October 10, 2018
Rates hit the growth stocks first
-4.08%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The Q4 2018 selloff on the Nasdaq
midway through · 2018-08-29 → 2018-12-24, -23.64% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- 10 October 2018 — the Nasdaq fell 4.08%
- The US ten-year yield had climbed to its highest level in seven years
- When rates rise, the stocks priced on distant future earnings get marked down first. Tech is that kind of stock
- The S&P 500 fell the same day, but the Nasdaq fell harder — that is why
- The Fed had raised rates several times that year and had said it would keep going
- Earnings were not the problem. Corporate profits were up on that year's tax cut. What changed was the yardstick used to price them
- The slide ran to 24 December, 23.64% below the late-August high
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.