The Dow just had its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

published 21 December 2018

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 416 points Friday, capping off a total loss of 1,600 points this week. It's officially the Dow's biggest weekly percentage drop since the 2008 financial crisis, CNBC notes.

The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.99 percent on Friday, down 22 percent from an August peak. That leaves the Nasdaq officially in a bear market, per The New York Times. It's largely propelled by losses from Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, seeing as the Nasdaq is full of tech stocks.

Also on Friday, the S&P 500 dropped 2 percent and is down 17.7 percent from its high in August. "Both the Dow and the S&P 500 are now in the red for 2018 by at least 9 percent," CNBC says. If projections hold, this will be the Dow and S&P's worst December since the Great Depression. Stocks usually rally as the holidays approach, but the Federal Reserve's decision to increase interest rates earlier in the week sparked selloffs.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.