S&P 500 has 7th worst decline since World War II

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

published 9 March 2020

Monday was a brutal day for the major indexes as stocks plummeted over fears of the spread of the novel coronavirus and Saudi Arabia's decision to start an oil price war with Russia.

Placing the S&P 500's 7.6 percent decline in its historical content amplifies its tumble. There are only six days with steeper falls since World War II than Monday for the index, and they all took place either in the fall of 2008 during the Great Recession or on and around October 19, 1987, which is known as Black Monday, one of the biggest Wall Street crashes ever.

Though there was significant fallout from Black Monday, it's worth noting the event didn't have lasting damage on the stock market itself, as it rebounded in two years. Sure, there wasn't the threat of a pandemic hovering over the global economy, but the drop was significantly larger than Monday's.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.