WhyItDropped

Nasdaq · December 26, 2018

Boxing Day on the Nasdaq

+5.84%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The Nasdaq's Fed-pivot rebound

early in it · 2018-12-24 → 2019-04-23, +31.13% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • On 26 December 2018 the Nasdaq rose 5.84% in a single day
  • The previous session, 24 December, was the low of that quarter's decline
  • Anxiety had peaked on rumours the administration might remove the Fed chair, and reassurance came that it would not
  • If central bank independence is in doubt, policy becomes unpredictable — a serious problem for markets
  • Strong holiday spending data arrived at the same time and added momentum
  • The Fed then signalled a pause and the recovery followed. The old high returned on 23 April 2019

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.