September 29th – This Day in Stock Market History

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 for daily posts!

 

Quote of the Day

“You say we’ve never seen that before….are you talking about in the history of the market?!”

-CNN anchor covering the stock market drop on this day in 2008 after the house rejected a plan to bailout the banks, (see video below).

 

September 29th – This Day in Stock Market History

 

1952 – NYSE discontinues Saturday trading and adds a half hour to the end of trading each weekday. At the time, markets would be open Monday through Friday 10am to 3:30 pm. The market hours we have today would not be set until 1985.

 

2008 – U.S. stock markets, which were already on edge after the near failure of Wachovia Bank the day before, are pushed off the edge after the house rejects a bailout plan touted to help ease the ongoing financial crisis. Markets begin their decline as soon as it becomes apparent the bill will fail. The Dow would have its worst single day point decline in history, falling 777.68 points.

 

WSJ - Front Page (Sept. 30, 2008)

You can watch how CNN covered the events of the day live in the videos below. The first video shows coverage of immediately after voting on the bill began, the second video covers the sharpest parts of the decline on this day in 2008:

 

Starting at 1:43, in the span of one minute the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 100 points for a total drop of 414 points. By 1:45 p.m., the loss reached 580 points; two minutes later, it had fallen further to 673 points. The VIX (a measure of stock market volatility and frequently called the “fear gauge”) hit its highest recorded level in history.

 

wsj covereage chart




Best September 29th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

1903 – Up 3.50%, 1.16 points.

 

Worst September 29th in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

2008 – Down 6.98%, 777.68 points.