Thursday, March 26, 2009

How bad was it updated

Back in November I computed the decline in the stock market based on a bottom on November 20, 2008. The decline in the Dow from its peak was 46.66% and of the S&P 500 Index was 51.92%.

However, it turned out that November 20, 2008 was not the bottom. On March 9, 2009 both the Dow and the S&P closed below the November 20 levels. The S&P got down to 676.53, 888.62 points below its peak level of 1565 on October 9, 2007, a decline of 56.78%. The Dow dropped to 6547.05, 7617.48 below its peak value of 14164.53, a decline of 53.78%. The great bear market of 2007-2009 has been exceeded only by the bear market of 1929-1933.

Let us hope there is no need to update this dismal statistic again.

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