S&P 500 · December 26, 1973

A year-end bounce inside the embargo

+3.06%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The 1973–74 oil shock bear market

midway through · 1973-01-11 → 1974-10-03, -48.20% over the whole period

What happened that day?

26 December 1973 — the S&P 500 rose 3.06% to close at 95.74. No single cause can be pinned to the day
Since the autumn the oil-producing states of the Middle East had cut off shipments to the United States. There were queues at the pumps and the price kept climbing
In late December a producers' meeting raised prices again, but word came with it that supply would not be cut further
In a market that has already fallen a long way, "not worse" is a reason to buy. This session and the next both rose
Year end also tends to stack two flows: tax-driven selling finishes, and the same money comes back in
The bounce did not end the episode. The index kept sliding into the following spring
From the mid-October high to the April 1974 low the index fell 19.62%

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 put together from the public record; where a specific source was consulted it is listed above.