A birthday party for the longest bull market in U.S. history was turning into something of a bummer on Monday, with major indexes flirting with thresholds that would end that run and mark the start of a bear market.
Read:The bull market turns 11 on Monday, can it outrun the coronavirus stock selloff?
A bear market is widely defined as a drop of 20% from a recent peak. Stocks had dropped into correction mode — defined as a pullback of 10% — late last month as fears over the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak began to rise. Here are the levels where key indexes would need to close to enter bear territory, according to Dow Jones Market Data:
S&P 500 SPX, -5.66% — 2,708.92
Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -5.83% — 23,641.14
Nasdaq Composite COMP, -5.24% — 7,853.74
Stocks fell sharply, triggering a so-called circuit breaker that temporarily halted U.S. equity trading after the S&P 500 saw a daily drop of 7% (another circuit breaker would be tripped if the index falls by 13%). The S&P 500 remained down 6.1% at 2,788.88, while the Dow was off nearly 1,650 points or 6.4%, at 24,222. The Nasdaq Composite was off 5.8% at 8,078.
The Dow briefly traded below its bear-market threshold, dropping more than 2,000 points at its session nadir of 23,616.66 on Monday. The S&P 500 held above its threshold, trading as low as 2,752.33, while the Nasdaq saw a session low at 7,946.66.
The bull market is set to turn 11 on Monday, marking the anniversary of the March 9, 2009, low for the S&P 500 during the financial crisis.
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