WhyItDropped

Nasdaq · September 17, 2001

Reopening After September 11

-6.83%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

A summer slide and a September shock

near the end of it · 2001-05-22 → 2001-09-21, -38.49% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • After the 11 September 2001 attacks, US markets stayed closed for four days — the longest suspension since 1933
  • Communications infrastructure near the exchange had been physically damaged
  • Trading resumed on 17 September; the Nasdaq fell 6.83%, absorbing four days of uncertainty at once
  • The reaction was more orderly than expected
  • Rather than panic selling, it was mostly a repricing of directly affected sectors — airlines, insurance, travel
  • Tech stocks were continuing a decline already under way
  • Fell 38.49% from peak. The Nasdaq's fall in this period owes more to the dot-com bust than to the attacks

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.