October 29th – This Day in Stock Market History – Black Tuesday

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Quote of the Day

“We try to price rather than time purchases. In our view, it is folly to forego buying shares in an outstanding business whose long term future is predictable, because of short term worries about an economy or a stock market that we know to be unpredictable. Why scrap an informed decision because of an uniformed guess?”

-Warren Buffett in his 1994 letter to shareholders

October 29th – This Day in Stock Market History – Black Tuesday

October 29th, 1929 – “Black Tuesday” as the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 11.73%, down 30.57 points to a close of 230.07.

16.4 million shares trade hands on the day, shattering the previous volume record. The record would stand for 40 years.

This happened just one day after “Black Monday” where stocks fell nearly 13%. Over the past 2 days, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 23.05%. The great depression is being felt in full force, but stocks would not bottom for 3 more years until July 8th 1932 when the Dow would close at 41.22.

Other notable stock performances on the day in 1929: AT&T was down 38%, Standard Oil was down 42% and GE was down 58%!

Front page coverage from the New York Times on Black Tuesday 1929
Front page coverage from the New York Times on Black Tuesday 1929

Sources: It Was A Very Good Year

and, The Market’s Measure

October 29th, 2012 – NYSE shuts down for hurricane Sandy.

The market would remain closed the next day as well, making it the first time in 124 years that weather had led to a 2 day shutdown of the New York Stock Exchange.

Best October 29th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

1987 – Up 4.96%, 91.51 points.

Worst October 29th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

1929 – Down 11.73%, 30.57 points.

Read of the Day

Our quote of the day comes from Warren Buffett’s 1994 letter to shareholders. Most of these are available online on Berkshire Hathaway’s website, but there are several resources that have organized his ideas and quotes from these letters into other formats. I found the quote in today’s Quote of the Day not by reading through Buffett’s letters, but from Peter Bevelin’s book A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers

The book is a great collection of Buffett quotes organized around ideas. This quote came from the “Have the right mental attitude toward market fluctuations” section. For any Buffett followers, this is a must have.

<– Go Back One Day: October 28 (Black Monday 1929)

Go To Next Day: October 30th, 2012 – Disney purchases Lucas Films for $4.5 billion. –>