WhyItDropped

Nasdaq · March 24, 2003

The day the war looked longer

-3.66%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The ten months that began when the war did

early in it · 2003-03-11 → 2004-01-26, +69.40% over the whole period

What happened that day?

  • The Nasdaq fell 3.66% on the day
  • It was the fifth day of the war, and reports said resistance was stiffer than expected. The bet on a quick end wobbled
  • The index had risen hard over the previous eight sessions. Prices built on the premise of a short war fall back fast when the premise shakes
  • Oil rose again. The market was pricing the war's likely length through the oil price
  • The setback did not last. Shares rose again in early April on the advance into Baghdad

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.