Four Records in Five Days: Wall Street is Having a Freak-Out
Photo of Wall Street sign.
Wall Street is having one of the worst weeks in a long time, breaking four records within the past five trading days. Here is a breakdown of what's been happening, and what it really means. Is another American recession coming? (Note: Based on the Dow Jones.)
Friday
One might call it the Friday that started it all. Just for fun. The markets on this day had opened at just over 26,000 points. It had hit a high of 26,600 only a week before, but had made small increment declines over the time being.
This Friday, on February 2nd, the Dow Jones crashed and lost -665 points (2.54%). At that point, it was the sixth biggest single-day point declines ever for the index. Now, it's the eight. That should foreshadow what's coming up next. Many investors were worried for the future of the stock index as the weekend break commenced. It closed at 25,500 points.
Monday
February 5th was a spectacularly bad day for the Dow Jones, sufferring the largest single-day point decline in that market's history. As soon as it had opened, it began crashing hundreds of points. Dow Futures hadn't been so nice to the market over the weekend.
The markets had crashed -1175 points (4.60%). It was confirmed the largest single-point day decline, though far from the largest percentage day. It send shockwaves through social media platforms, cable news agencies, and around the world.
Tuesday
Global stock markets had a very rough day, though the Dow Jones bounced back. In fact, this day was one of the record-breakers within the past few, hinting at one of the largest point inclines in the index's history.
Raising +567 points (2.33%), it is currently stated to be the fourth largest point incline in the stock market's history for the DJI, also far percentage-wise. The bounce-back came as investors feared a market correction or crash, which didn't exactly happen. They were hoping for a good next day -- which just didn't happen.
Wednesday
An extremely bumpy day on Wall Street as the volatility of the DJI (Dow Jones) grew wider. With highs in the positives but huge lows in the negatives, the market line didn't stop crossing over itself going up and down.
At the end of the day, right when things seemed to be going pretty good for the index, it took a randomly sharp decline within its most vulnerable stage. Unfortunately for investors, they couldn't call the day a success. The market fell -19 points.
Thursday
February 8th was another rocky day for the Dow, but not in the way Wednesday was. Instead of rocking back and forth between gains and losses, the index had been rocking between losses that were record-breaking and others that were not.
At the end of the day, the stock had collapsed rather quickly during its vulnerable stage throughout the last hour before closing. The market had closed at 23,860 - just showing you the difference between five days prior, when the market was above 26,000. In the second largest single-day point decline ever for the index, it fell -1032 points (4.15%).
What this means
No need to panic, according to market analysts of which most agree this is a natural (though unusually quick) 'market correction', which usually is around a 10-20% decrease in points losses for the Dow Jones.
The most recent decline, -1032 points and 4.15%, had finally entered the Dow Jones into a market-correction zone of around 10%, meaning it may decline for the next while and remain in a stage of vulnerability, though eventually will recover. That is, unless, this would be considered a market crash. That might be deadly.