Did you know? You can go to any day’s “This Day in History” page by simply entering the month and date after www.begintoinvest.com/
For example: www.begintoinvest.com/May-9
Or follow Begin To Invest on Twitter or Facebook for daily posts!
Now, ‘This Day in History’ is also available as an Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing!
Quote of the Day
“By the end of the first day of trading, some 2.5 million shares had changed hands, and the price of Microsoft’s stock stood at $27.75. The opportunity to take a quick profit was too great for many institutional investors to resist. Over the next few weeks they sold off roughly half their shares.”
– Fortune on the Microsoft IPO
After making a quick 40%, almost half of the original shares purchased at the IPO were sold. Over the next 30 years Microsoft stock would rise another 75,000%!
March 13th – This Day in Stock Market History – Microsoft IPO
March 13th, 1907 – The Panic of 1907 is still a few months away, but cracks are appearing in the confidence investors have in American companies. Stocks break lower, led by the once coveted railroads. The Dow Railroad index falls from 112.53 to 107.52. The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls nearly 4% on the day.
The panic of 1907 was a large factor in the creation of the Federal Reserve system a few years later in 1913. The panic was also another moment where J.P. Morgan proved his power to New York Financiers. On October 24th 1907, Morgan would help organize a $25 million deposit into New York banks and brokerages to keep them solvent. Morgan would emerge from the panic as one of the world’s most powerful businessman.
If you are interested in learning more, jump ahead to our this day in history page for October 15th, when the real excitement from the panic of 1907 begins!
Source: It was a very good year
March 13th, 1986 – Microsoft Corp (Ticker: MSFT) goes public with an initial offering price of $21 per share ($0.07 today adjusted for splits and dividends). Every $100 invested at its IPO is worth a little more than $166,000 today.
How was Microsoft doing at the time? Here is Microsoft’s first financial statements released to the public in 1986:
Microsoft income statement in 1986:
Microsoft balance sheet in 1986:
Microsoft’s entire initial prospectus can be found here:
Best March 13th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
2003 – Up 3.57% or 269.68 points
Worst March 13th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History
1907 – Down 3.94% or 2.48 points
Image of the Day
Microsoft’s IPO would make Bill Gates a household name, and the world’s richest person.
You can read the Fortune magazine article about Bill Gates here:
Fortune – Inside the Deal that Made Bill Gates
<– Go To Previous Day: March 12 1986: Oracle IPOs
