The bear has arrived for the Dow.
With a drop of 5.9%, or 1,465 points, to close at 23,553.22, on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down more than 20% from its all-time closing high on Feb. 12., which officially ended the 11-year bull market.
The S&P 500 fell 4.89% to close at 2,741.38 — off about 19% from its recent high. The Nasdaq ended the day down 4.70%, to close at 7,952.05.
“Brutal session for US #stocks with the three major indices ending the day 4.7 to 5.9% lower. Government #bonds, the traditional risk mitigator and diversifier, did not provide relief. The yield on the 10-year ended the day higher (at 0.85%). A bunch of margin calls are going out,” said Mohamed A. El-Erian, chief economic advisor for Allianz, late Wednesday on Twitter.
“It happened in just 19 days. Officially the fastest bear market ever,” Tweeted Michael Batnick, director of research for Ritholtz Wealth Management, who shared a Dow chart on other bear markets illustrating the development.
The markets have weakened out of growing concern that federal action at the fiscal level and other steps may not be enough to limit the economic effects of the spreading coronavirus.
“The S&P 500 finished -4.89%, the 7th close of at least +/- 3% in last 10 trading sessions. In post-WW2 era, it happened in 2008 and 1987. Historic volatility. Further, today marked 6 closes of at least +/- 4% in 10 sessions, something only seen in 2008, 1987, 1933, 1932, 1929,” explained TD Ameritrade Institutional’s Michael McKerr in a Tweet.