Financial Crisis, 25 Feb 2009: Dow 7,062.93, -119.15 (-1.66%)

Today began and ended badly, with a bit of modest hope in the middle.

At the opening bell, the Dow opened far below the close of the prior day, at 7,099.49. Within the first hour, it had sunk to an intraday low of 7,033.62. The rest of the morning was an uphill struggle. By noon the index climbed to 7,180, but met resistance which it was unable to overcome.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with Wall Street digesting the most recent proposal for the U.S. government to salvage ailing Citicorp, along with news of the worst annualized quarterly dip in GDP for the past 25 years: a drop of 6.2% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

During the afternoon, the market eroded. From the intraday high of 7,195.46, prices tumbled first after the 2:00 pm bell, then after the 3:00 pm bell, and finally, in the minutes before the closing 4:00 pm bell, until the market closed at 7,062.62, thus setting a new annual low.

In all, the U.S. market has already lost 18%-20% of its value since the beginning of the year.

Market Index Performance
27 February 2009

DJIA
Day: -119.15, –1.66%
Week: –4.1%
February: 11.7%
Year-to-Date: –19.5%

S&P500
Day:
Week: –4.5%
February: 11%
Year-to-Date: –18.6%

NASDAQ Composite Index (COMPX)
Day: –13.63; –0.98%
Week: –4.4%
February: 6.7%
Year-to-Date: –12.6%

Wilshire 5000
Day: –145.50, –1.91% (7,473.97)
Week: –4.96% (from 7,863.89)
February: –10.42% (from 8,343.79)
Year-to-Date: –20.2% (from 9,364.50)

Sources:

• William Hennelly, TheStreet.com
• finance.yahoo.com;
• www.wilshire.com/Indexes/Broad/Wilshire5000