Free Republic

"Dow Industrials plunge more than 1,100, the biggest one-day point drop ever..." was a headline after the market closed today.  Why lead with the point decline and not the percentage decline? A 4% drop isn't nearly as alarming, and you might be less inclined to click on the headline.On a day in October of 1987, the Dow dropped 23% -- about 6x as much as today's decline.  Almost a quarter of stock market value was temporarily wiped out in about eight hours.  That was a loss of 508 points.  If we had only experienced the percent loss at that time...

President Donald Trump has repeatedly touted the strong stock market performance since his election victory as proof of his success. Detractors may point to the Dow Jones industrial average's recent stumbles, but the benchmark index has much further to fall before Trump's postelection gains are gone. The Dow declined by 1,175 points, or down 4.6 percent on Monday. From its high on Jan. 26 at 26,616.71, the benchmark index has declined nearly 2,300 points or 8.5 percent through Monday's close at 24,345.75. Trump still has a big cushion. The Dow closed at 18,332.74 on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2016, which...

Whatever it is that’s bringing the stock market down sharply, it’s not the bursting of a bubble. That’s because the recent market — overheated and overvalued as it has been — doesn’t even come close to past market bubbles. And the stock market’s plunge over the last week — more than 2,000 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.07% on an intra-day basis — also doesn’t compare to the carnage of a bubble bursting. That at least is what I conclude from academic research into the precursors of past market bubbles. Consider first a study that was published...