The stock market on Wednesday started the second quarter nearly the same way it ended March, with bruising losses.
A resumption of declines to commence the first trading day in April, or the second quarter, for already-battered equity gauges, resulted in the worst start to a quarter for stock-market bulls ever.
For the broad-market S&P 500 index, its decline of 4.44% represents the index’s worst first day of any quarter on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The index was created in 1957, to put things into perspective.
| Rank/Worst | S&P 500 % change | Date |
| 1 | -3.69 | Jan. 2, 1932 |
| 2 | -3.01 | Oct. 1, 1998 |
| 3 | -2,97 | Oct. 1, 1934 |
| 4 | -2.85% | Oct. 3, 2011 |
| 5 | -2.80 | Jan. 2, 2001 |
| Source: Dow Jones Market Data |
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, logged its worst start to the first three months in a calendar year in its 124-year history, managing to exceed a 4.32% decline put in to start the third quarter of 1896.
| Rank/Worst | DJIA % change | Dates |
| 1 | -4.32 | July 1, 1896 |
| 2 | -4.21 | Jan. 2, 1932 |
| 3 | -3.52 | Jan. 2, 1904 |
| 4 | -2.82 | April 1, 1898 |
| 5 | -2.74 | April 1, 1929 |
| Source: Dow Jones Market Data |
The Dow DJIA, -4.44% on Wednesday closed 974 points, or 4.44%, lower to 20,944, the S&P 500 SPX, -4.41% tumbled 114 points, or 4.41%, to 2,470.50, while The Nasdaq Composite COMP, -4.41% closed 340 points, or 4.41%, lower to 7,360.
Stocks also ended lower on Tuesday, capping a quarter that saw stocks tumble from February records into a bear market at record speed.
The first quarter marked the worst quarterly performance for the Dow since the fourth quarter of 1987, and the three-month skid also represented the steepest first-quarter drop, from January through the end of March, in the index’s history, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Read: Here’s how the stock market tends to perform after brutal quarters
Wednesday’s action comes as U.S. investors are coming to grips with the prospect of a long haul for the economy and the markets amid a pandemic that has been contracted by more than 900,000 people world-wide. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump warned that a “very, very painful” two weeks lie ahead for the country in face of a rapidly spreading COVID-19 epidemic, which originated in December in Wuhan, China and has brought much of the world to a screeching halt to slow the spread of the deadly pathogen.
The Dow now stands 29.13% from its record close on Feb. 12, while the S&P 500 is off 27% and the Nasdaq is off 25% from their Feb. 19 all-time closing highs.
See: Dow faces crucial April test as coronavirus pandemic brings ‘blizzard of bad news’
Michael Destefano contributed to this article
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