Has the S&P Ever Lost More Points Than the Dow?
By: After jumping up over 200 points this morning, the Dow reversed course and finished in negative territory for the day. The S&P 500 also jumped, rising above 1300 before falling back down. Interestingly, at one point during the swing, the S&P was down more than the Dow was down. The Dow is priced roughly 9 times higher than the S&P 500. So given its scale, it is somewhat unusual to see this happen when the two indices move in the same direction.
In fact, since 1928, this has happened only 210 times, 105 times when both indices were up for the day and 105 times when they were both down. On average, it happens under three times per year and the last time it happened to the downside was October 24, 2007 when the Dow was down 1 point and the S&P was down 4. The biggest delta occurred on August 4, 1999 when the Dow lost 2.5 and the S&P lost 16.9.
The biggest point losers for the day were IBM , Chevron, Exxon Mobil , Alcoa and Caterpillar .
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