WhyItDropped

S&P 500 · December 26, 2018

The day after Christmas

+4.96%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The Fed pivot rally

early in it · 2018-12-24 → 2019-04-23, +24.78% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • On 26 December 2018 the S&P 500 rose 4.96% in a single day
  • The previous session, 24 December, was the low of that quarter's decline
  • The index had plunged on Christmas Eve and fear peaked
  • Rumours that the administration might remove the Fed chair had added to the anxiety, and reassurance came that it would not happen
  • Strong holiday spending figures arrived at the same time and added momentum
  • The Fed then signalled it would stop hiking and the recovery continued. 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.