The Financial Crisis 10 Years On

You can quibble with an exact starting point for the Financial Crisis, but I’d go with February 27, 2007 — ten years ago today.

The thing about the Financial Crisis is that it didn’t suddenly begin as one turned on the lights. Rather, several events came together that got worse and worse until…boom!

Stocks tumbled across the board Tuesday, after declining markets in China and Europe and a steep drop in durable goods orders triggered a massive selloff on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average (down 416.02 to 12,216.24) tumbled 416.02 points, its biggest one-day point loss since the day the stock market reopened after the Sept. 11th attacks. On that day, the Dow lost 684.81 points.

On a percentage basis, the Dow lost about 3.3 percent. The blue-chip barometer has now fallen for five sessions straight.

The broader S&P 500 (down 50.33 to 1,399.04) index fell 3.5 percent and saw its biggest one-day percentage loss in nearly four years. The S&P 500 also slumped for the previous four sessions.

The Nasdaq (down 96.66 to 2,407.86, Charts) composite tumbled about 3.9 percent and saw its biggest one-day percentage loss since Dec. 9, 2002, according to early tallies.

The Russell 2000 (down 31.03 to 792.66) small-cap index lost almost 4 percent.

Trying to limit the declines, the New York Stock Exchange said it imposed trading curbs as of 1:03 p.m. ET, around the time the Dow slipped 200 points, CNN confirmed.

Treasury bonds rallied as investors sought a safe place to park their money while the dollar fell. Oil prices inched higher and gold prices fell.

On the final day of trading in 2012, the S&P 500 was still below its close from February 26, 2007.

Posted by on February 27th, 2017 at 1:29 pm


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