S&P 500 · September 18, 2008
Word of a rescue plan
+4.33%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The Global Financial Crisis bear market
midway through · 2007-10-09 → 2009-03-09, -56.78% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- On 18 September 2008 the S&P 500 rose 4.33%
- Lehman Brothers had failed three days earlier and the market had broken. Money had stopped circulating
- That afternoon came word that the US Treasury was preparing a large plan to buy bad assets
- If the government buys them, they leave the banks' books — and something that could not be priced acquires a price
- Alongside it, money market funds were given a government guarantee and short selling of financial shares was banned
- The plan was voted down in the House ten days later before passing on a second attempt
- In this stretch the index was 46.41% below its peak
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.