S&P 500 · December 20, 2000

Warnings piling up at year end

-3.13%

single-day change vs previous close

Part of a longer stretch

The dot-com bust hits the S&P 500

early in it · 2000-03-24 → 2002-10-09, -49.15% over the whole period

What happened that day?

20 December 2000 — the S&P 500 fell 3.13%. No single cause for that one day could be pinned down
Large technology companies were cutting guidance one after another. April's fall had been about price; by year end it was about profit
Year end also brings selling of losing positions to cut tax. Whatever has already fallen tends to get sold more
The Nasdaq fell far harder the same day — a difference in how much tech each index carries
This day was December's low. A fortnight later the Fed cut rates at an unscheduled meeting and the direction turned for a while
From the September high to the April 2001 low the index fell 27.45%

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.