March 13th - This Day in Stock Market History - Microsoft IPO

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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

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 13, 1933 – Banks Reopen, Ending the Great Depression’s Darkest Chapter

On Monday March 13th, banks in the twelve Federal Reserve Bank cities unlocked their doors for the first time in over a week, ending President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented national bank holiday.

FDR had declared the holiday on March 6, 1933, shutting down every bank in the country after more than 4,000 banks had collapsed and unemployment reached 25.2%. Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act on March 9 — so urgently that many legislators voted without reading it. On the evening of March 12, Roosevelt delivered his first “Fireside Chat” to roughly 60 million radio listeners, explaining the crisis in plain language.

His most famous line became a turning point in public psychology: “I can assure you that it is safer to keep your money in a reopened bank than under the mattress.”

What happened the next morning stunned observers. Instead of bank runs, long lines of depositors formed to return their hoarded cash. Currency held by the public had swelled by $1.78 billion (about $45 billion in 2026 dollars) in the four weeks prior.

By month’s end, roughly two-thirds of that cash was redeposited.

On March 14, banks in 250 additional cities with clearinghouses reopened. By March 15, banks controlling 90% of the nation’s banking resources had resumed operations, and the NYSE reopened for the first time since March 3.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 15.34% on March 15 — still the largest single-day percentage gain in DJIA history. The New York Times reported a $3 billion increase in aggregate market value. FDR adviser Raymond Moley later reflected: “Capitalism was saved in eight days.”

The DJIA had closed at 53.84 on March 3, the last trading day before the shutdown. By July 18, 1933, it hit 108.67 — the fastest 100% gain in the index’s history to that point. Bank failures plummeted from over 4,000 in 1933 to just 61 in 1934. The crisis also birthed transformative legislation: the Glass-Steagall Act and the creation of the FDIC.

Investor Lesson: In the depths of a systemic crisis, the most powerful market force is not valuation analysis or technical signals, it’s the restoration of institutional credibility. We’ve seen this time and time again in banking panics through the years.

March 13th, 1986 – Microsoft IPO

Microsoft Corp (Ticker: MSFT) goes public with an initial offering price of $21 per share ($0.07 today adjusted for splits and dividends).

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:

Microsoft_prospectus

March 13, 2020 – COVID Crisis Produces the DJIA’s Largest Single-Day Point Gain

The day after the modern “Black Thursday”, when the Dow plunged 2,352 points (−9.99%) in its worst session since 1987 , this day in 2020, delivered one of the most dramatic reversals in market history. The DJIA surged 1,985 points (+9.36%) to close at 23,185.62, setting a new record for the largest single-day point gain ever at that time.

The session was defined by a remarkable intraday arc. Futures had hit “limit up” (+5%) overnight, signaling a strong open. Stocks surged at the bell, but gains were cut in half by late morning when President Trump announced an afternoon press conference, injecting uncertainty.

The pivotal moment came at 3:30 PM ET, when Trump began a Rose Garden address declaring COVID-19 a national emergency under the Stafford Act and National Emergencies Act. The Dow gained 1,428 points during the speech alone — that 30-minute surge exceeded the previous all-time record for an entire trading day.

Trump’s declaration freed $50 billion in federal disaster relief funds, activated FEMA, and announced expanded testing partnerships with private-sector companies. The New York Fed had already offered $1.5 trillion in short-term repo operations on March 12–13 to inject liquidity.

Other key data points from the session: the S&P 500 gained +9.28% to 2,710.95, the NASDAQ surged +9.34% to 7,874.23, crude oil rose +5.62% to $33.27/barrel, and gold fell −4.33% to $1,521.40/oz in a counterintuitive sell-off driven by forced liquidation. The 10-year Treasury yield stood at 0.951%, and the VIX had closed at 68.19 the prior day.

Despite the day’s euphoria, every gain was erased the following Monday, March 16 — “Black Monday II” — when the Dow opened down 2,240 points and closed down 2,997 points (−12.93%) after the Fed’s emergency rate cut to 0–0.25% paradoxically spooked markets. The ultimate bottom arrived on March 23, 2020, with the DJIA at 18,591.93.

For the week of March 9–13, the Dow still lost 10.4% despite Friday’s historic rally.

Investor Lesson: The largest single-day gains in market history almost always occur during bear markets, not bull markets. A record up day is not a signal that the worst is over, it’s a symptom of extreme volatility that accompanies systemic stress.

March 13, 2023 – Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse

March 13, 2023, was the first trading day after one of the most dramatic weekend government interventions since 2008. Silicon Valley Bank was seized on March 10th. It was the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history with $209 billion in assets and .

One big problem – roughly 89% of those deposits were uninsured due to depositors not qualifying for FDIC coverage.

Customers had withdrawn $42 billion from the bank on March 9 alone, and the bank was preparing for another $100 billion expected the next day.

Over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, and FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg issued a joint statement invoking a “systemic risk exception” to guarantee all deposits at both SVB and Signature Bank (which was closed on March 12).

On March 13, the FDIC opened SVB as Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, N.A., with all 17 branches operational and every depositor made whole. HSBC UK acquired SVB’s British subsidiary for £1.

The Dow closed at 32,155.40 (+336 points, +1.06%), snapping a five-day losing streak, while the NASDAQ gained 2.14%. But regional bank stocks were decimated: First Republic Bank plunged 62%, Western Alliance fell 47%, and PacWest Bancorp dropped 52%.

More than a dozen bank stocks were halted for volatility during the day. The 2-year Treasury yield experienced its largest three-day drop since Black Monday 1987, plunging to 3.9% from above 5%.

The BTFP ultimately provided over $165 billion in loans at its peak. The estimated cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund was $20 billion. The crisis later consumed First Republic Bank (failed April 28, 2023; acquired by JPMorgan for $10.6 billion) and spread internationally, forcing UBS to acquire Credit Suisse on March 19.

By the Numbers

15.34% — The DJIA’s gain on March 15, 1933, the first trading day after March 13’s bank reopenings. It remains the largest single-day percentage gain in DJIA history, more than 90 years later.

$5.5 million — The approximate current value of a $1,000 investment in Microsoft at its March 13, 1986, IPO price of $21 per share, reflecting nine stock splits and four decades of compounding.

$16.1 billion — The amount of cash Bear Stearns lost in three days leading up to March 13, 2008, as its reserves collapsed from $18.1 billion to roughly $2 billion, triggering the firm’s emergency sale to JPMorgan.

$42 billion — The amount withdrawn from Silicon Valley Bank on March 9, 2023, alone — the fastest bank run in American history, powered by social media coordination among depositors.