In a wild trading week that prompted major US exchanges to cancel trades amid fears of trader errors and computer system malfunction, the three major equity indices fell 5.7% or greater for the week, marking the worst weekly percent drop in the S&P and Dow since 3/6/09 (around the March Lows), and the biggest weekly percent decline in the NASDAQ Composite since 11/21/2008 ( at the height of the financial crisis).
Also adding to the steep market drop on Thursday was increased jitters of Greece defaulting on its debt and worse than expected April Chain Store Sales that led Wall Street's Fear Gauge - the CBOE Market Volatility Index to its thirteenth biggest daily percent move of 31.67% in its history; the VIX's biggest daily percent change was on Black Monday on Oct. 19, 1987 when the VIX closed up 312.95%.
The VIX settled up on Friday at 40.95 closing at its highest level since 4/2/09 and rose 85.71% for the week, marking its largest weekly percent gain since 10/23/1987 when it rose 171.68%
What follows is a summary of this week's statistics on the markets.
4-Day Losing Streaks:
- On Friday, the Dow finished down for the four-consecutive days, down 767.4 points or 6.88% in the 4-day period, the longest losing streak since 10/2/2009 and the biggest 4-day percent losing streak since 3/3/09 when the Dow fell -7.49% in that 4-day streak
- On Friday, the S&P finished down for the four-consecutive days, down 91.38 points or 7.6% in the 4-day period, the longest losing streak since 10/28/2009 and the biggest 4-day percent losing streak since 3/3/09 when the S&P fell -8.96% in that 4-day streak
- On Friday, the NASDAQ Composite finished down for the four-consecutive days, down 233.1 points or 9.33% in the 4-day period, the longest losing streak since 10/28/2009 and the biggest 4-day percent losing streak since 10/27/2008 when the NASDAQ fell -11.2% in that 4-day streak
Biggest Weekly Percent Decline Since:
- The Dow fell 5.71% for the week, and down for the second straight week, logging its worst weekly % drop since 3/6/09 when it fell -6.17%
- The S&P fell 6.39% for the week, and down for the second straight week, logging its worst weekly % drop since 3/6/09 when it fell -7.03%
- The NASDAQ fell -7.95% for the week, and down for the second straight week, logging its worst weekly % drop since 11/21/08 when it fell -8.74%.
- The last time all three major indexes were concurrently down 5.7% or more in a week was on 3/6/2009.
Point Drops:
- The Dow has posted daily drops of 200 points or more, 6 times this year versus 11 days for the same period last year
- The S&P has posted daily drops of 30 points or more, only twice this year versus 6 days for the same period last year
- The NASDAQ has posted daily drops of 70 points or more, only twice this year, and only once last year for the same period.
Since the March 9th, 2009 lows, the S&P is up 64.2%, the Dow is up 58.55%, the NASDAQ is up 78.59%, and the Russell 2K is up 90.23%
S&P 500
Sector Impact: Ten out of ten sectors closed the week in negative territory, led to the downside by material and industrial stocks.
- Dow Chemical was the biggest loser in the basic materials sector, down 17% for the week
- Industrial stocks were hurt by Masco, down 16% this week
- Year-to-date, six out of ten sectors are trading in negative territory, led to the downside by telecom stocks with a loss of 10%, and to the upside by the consumer discretionary sector, with a gain of 8%