Nasdaq Drops 9.6% In Dot-Com Bubble Sell-Off On This Day In Market History

Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened? On April 14, 2000, the Nasdaq dropped 9.6% as the dot-com bubble burst.

Where The Market Was: The Dow finished the day at 10,305.77. The S&P 500 closed at 1,356.56.

What Else Was Going On In The World? In 2000, concerns about widespread Y2K computer glitches proved to be unwarranted after no major outages occurred. Microsoft Corp. released Windows 2000. The average price of a new car was $24,750.

Brutal Day For Tech Stocks: The bursting of the dot-com bubble really gained momentum on April 14, 2000, when the Nasdaq dropped 355.49 points to close at 3,321.29. In fact, the 9.67% drop in the Nasdaq was the biggest single-day decline in the index’s history up to that point. Incredibly, the Nasdaq finished the week down more than 25% in a stretch of just five trading days.

At the time, market bulls rushed in to urge investors to buy the dip. Lehman Bros. strategist Jeffrey Applegate said tech stocks had “largely gone through their valuation adjustment.”

Robert Froelich, chief executive of the Kemper Funds, said the sell-off represented “the greatest opportunity for individual investors in a long time.”

In reality, the sell-off was just getting started. The Nasdaq would drop another 25.6% by the end of 2000 to finish the year at 2,470.52. The index didn’t reach its post-bubble bottom until October 2002 when it hit 1,114.11.

Photo via Pixabay.