Nasdaq · November 12, 1990
The market turned before the war began
+2.78%
single-day change vs previous close
Part of a longer stretch
The Nasdaq's Gulf War rebound
early in it · 1990-10-16 → 1991-04-02, +50.95% over the whole period
What happened that day?
- The Nasdaq rose 2.78% on the day — the second-largest single gain of this recovery
- **No single cause for that day has been pinned down.** What is established is that it sat at the start of a six-month recovery
- The market's low was already a month behind by this point. Prices had begun rising before the war had even started
- They could move first because the worst had been priced in through the summer, and oil was coming down off its high
- The fighting began the following January, and the news of it sent shares sharply higher rather than lower
- Across the stretch as a whole the index gained 51% in six months
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.