Dow By the Numbers
Original photo: Phil Whitehouse
Written by Gary A. Seidman
SwitchYard Media, Inc. - contact | website
Designed and produced by Kent Harris
Tin Can Rocket, LLC. - contact | website
A production of SwitchYard Media, Inc.
Photo: FDR Presidential Library
The Baddest of Bears
The 1929 crash battered Wall Street and ushered in a long, grim decade. From its peak of 381 on Sept. 3, 1929, the Dow Jones Industrials took a violent tumble to a low of 199 on Nov. 13. But then, extraordinarily, stocks began to rally. During the next 155 days the Dow regained 48 percent of its value, seducing back investors in what would ultimately become a sucker's rally.
In April 1930 the bottom fell out of the market. Europe was in crisis, there was a selling panic in Tokyo and Wall Street had entered a bear market that would continue for 27 months and shave an astonishing 86 percent off the Dow.
In 1930 alone the Dow fell 33.8 percent. The next year would be even worse. America was in a Great Depression that would persist until the deficit spending for World War II turned the economy around.
START: April 17,1930
END: July 8, 1932
LENGTH: 813 days
DOW START: 294.07
DOW END: 41.22
TOTAL LOSS: -86.0 percent
Photo: FDR Presidential Library
Hope, Despair and the Path to War
By 1936, believing the worst was over, FDR curtailed spending on New Deal programs that had been established to counter the Depression. At the start of '37, industrial activity and commodity prices were rising. But by spring, weakness began to show. And in August stocks collapsed.
Labor strikes, commodity speculation and unease with FDR's proposal to pack the Supreme Court all contributed to the selloff. The policy of stimulating consumer spending to revive the economy began to look artificial and vulnerable. Businesses were reluctant to make long-term investments in an environment they saw as rife with government interference.
With Hitler's Austrian anschluss providing the final shove, the economy tanked and the market hit bottom in March 1938.
START: March 10, 1937
END: March 31, 1938
LENGTH: 386 days
DOW START: 194.40
DOW END: 98.95
TOTAL LOSS: -49.1 percent
Photo: Library of Congress
The Panic of 1907
After a two-year, 144 percent rally, the bears had their turn in 1906. In April, the market was rocked when insurance companies liquidated securities to cover claims from San Francisco's devastating earthquake. The next two years would be volatile.
On March 14, 1907, the Dow tumbled 8.4 percent . But the real trouble erupted that fall when several businessmen with ties to small New York banks allegedly used bank funds to speculate on copper prices. It didn't work out.
Rumor that one speculator was linked to the president of the Knickerbocker Trust Co. provoked a run on the bank that proved contagious. In the absence of regulators, 70 year-old J.P. Morgan assembled an alliance to stabilize the markets. By mid-November the crisis subsided. There would be one more casualty. On Nov. 13, Knickerbocker's president killed himself.
START: Jan. 19, 1906
END: Nov. 11, 1907
LENGTH: 665 days
DOW START: 75.45
DOW END: 38.83
TOTAL LOSS: -48.5 percent
Photo: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
The Crash of 1929
In the six years leading up to the crash of 1929, the Dow rose 344.5 percent.
The "Roaring Twenties" were an age of great technological advancements with radio, automobiles and airplanes capturing the public's imagination. Americans who had never considered investing were drawn by the promise of Wall Street's fast money. The economy was doing well and speculation was rampant.
On Sept. 3, 1929, the Dow peaked at 381.17 and then entered a month of correction. The initial crash was Black Thursday, Oct. 24. The next Monday the Dow tumbled 12.8 percent, followed by "Black Tuesday's" 11.7 percent dive. The widespread panic that arose from the unprecidented selling is considered by many to be the beginning of the Great Depression.
START: Sept. 3, 1929
END: Nov. 13, 1929
LENGTH: 71 days
DOW START: 381.17
DOW END: 198.69
TOTAL LOSS: -47.9 percent
Photo: Library of Congress
Wall Street's First Tech Bubble
In some respects, the 21 month skid that began in November 1919 resembles the bursting dot-com bubble 80 years later.
Just like in the late 1990s, the economy and the market had been on a tear in 1919 as investors bid up shares of the "new technology" companies of the day -- automobiles. And just like in 2000, nervousness about the viability of the industry and the high prices of the shares -- largely due to frenzied bidding for Stutz Motor Car and GM -- caused a major shake out. Suddenly, with inflation surging, car buyers disappeared.
With unemployment on the rise, increasing unrest among the country's fast growing immigrant communities and general strikes breaking out, investors were on edge. In 1920 alone, the Dow fell 32.9 percent, its fourth biggest annual last.
START: Nov. 3, 1919
END: Aug. 24, 1921
LENGTH: 660 days
DOW START: 119.62
DOW END: 63.90
TOTAL LOSS: -46.6 percent
Photo: Library of Congress
Morgan, Harriman and William McKinley
For American commerce, 1901 was a milestone year. In January, the great Texas oil gusher was discovered at Spindletop. And in February, J. P. Morgan created America's first billion dollar company by merging dozens of ironworks into U.S. Steel.
By April, a speculative frenzy engulfed the markets. Railroads were the target. A battle had erupted for control of Northern Pacific, pitting Edward Harriman against J.P. Morgan. The rails soared, but short sellers -- caught off guard that spring -- desperately sought to cover their positions by selling otherwise healthy shares.
And then in September stocks plunged when Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot and killed President William McKinley in Buffalo, N.Y. Later that year, a severe drought added to the market's concerns. It was an inauspicious start of the new century.
START: June 17, 1901
END: Nov. 9, 1903
LENGTH: 875 days
DOW START: 57.33
DOW END: 30.88
TOTAL LOSS: -46.1 percent
Photo: Library of Congress, Nat. Archives
The Arab Oil Embargo of '73
Stocks and the economy went from tenable to terrible in 1973. Inflation soared; the dollar was shunned; the prime rate was hiked month after month; and gold prices leaped to nearly $130 an ounce by June 1973 -- twice its January level.
If that weren't enough, the summer's headlines brought a flood of new Watergate revelations. By August, the Dow had lost 200 points from its January peak. And then a lightening bear market rally rocketed the Dow up 100 points. It wouldn't last long.
On October 6 the Yom Kippur war broke out; on the 10th Vice President Agnew resigned; and on the 17th OPEC announced an oil embargo that sent inflation spiraling and guaranteed a grim 1974. By the time this bear was through, Nixon had resigned, gas lines were routine and Wall Street endured its worst period since the Depression.
START: Jan. 11, 1973
END: Dec. 6, 1974
LENGTH: 694 days
DOW START: 1051.70
DOW END: 577.60
TOTAL LOSS: -45.1 percent
Photo: Library of Congress
The Toll of War
For a few weeks in the summer of 1939, stocks lurched higher on expectations that U.S. companies would make a bundle manufacturing arms for World War II. Germany and Russia had just signed a non-agression pact and America was still neutral.
Stocks traded in a narrow range until the German blitzkrieg through Western Europe in the spring of 1940 caused a panic. Wall Street's troubles were compounded by British selling of U.S. securities to finance the war. By the time Pearl Harbor was attacked in December 1941 the market had been on a sustained downtrend and volume was anemic.
War news dominated the era, but such was the uncertainty of the times that the Allied victory in June 1942 at the Battle of Midway -- the war's turning point -- was no cause for celebration.
START: Sept. 12, 1939
END: April 28, 1942
LENGTH: 959 days
DOW START: 155.92
DOW END: 92.92
TOTAL LOSS: -40.4 percent
Photo: Library of Congress
Profitable War/Worrisome War
The NYSE closed when World War I broke out in July 1914 and stayed closed until December. The next year the Dow jumped 82 percent as officially neutral America became the war's key supplier. Arms-maker to the world suited Wall Street nicely.
Then in December 1916, rumors that President Wilson was secretly working on a peace conference triggered a selloff. Peace didn't look profitable. But a shooting war with American troops on the front-lines looked even less appealing.
On Dec. 21, 1916, Secretary of State Robert Lansing's announcement that the U.S. could be drawn into the war ignited a selloff. On Feb. 1, 1917, a day after Germany withdrew its pledge to safeguard American ships, the Dow tumbled 7 percent. In a 10-week span it lost a quarter of its bull market high.
START: Nov. 21, 1916
END: Dec. 19, 1917
LENGTH: 393 days
DOW START: 110.15
DOW END: 65.95
TOTAL LOSS: -40.1 percent
Photo: Gary Seidman
"Black Monday"
It was called "Black Monday" in the financial markets. On Oct. 19, 1987, waves of selling spurred by computer program trades engulfed markets around the world. It started in Hong Kong and spread like a contagion from time zone to time zone. "It's the nearest thing to a meltdown that I ever want to see," said James Phelan, the chairman of the NYSE.
When all was said and done, the Dow had fallen a record 22.5 percent -- 508 points -- on that Monday. A slowing economy, rising inflation and a currency dispute among leading industrial nations had fanned the flames. In classic form, a huge rally had preceded the crash. The Dow had gained 44 percent from December 1986 through August 1987 and was widely expected to correct. By mid-October the shakeout was well underway, falling 95 points on the 14th and 108 on the 16th. But almost as quickly as it fell, the market regained its footing and, amazingly, closed higher for the year.
START: Aug. 25, 1987
END: Oct. 19, 1987
LENGTH: 55 days
DOW START: 2,722.42
DOW END: 1,738.74
TOTAL LOSS: -36.1 percent