What Happened In The Markets Thursday Has Only Occurred Twice

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia sent stock futures in the U.S. sharply down on Wednesday night. Stock markets opened lowered Thursday but staged a late comeback that put the day in select company in terms of range of movement.

What Happened: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY opened Thursday at $411.02. Shares of the ETF traded between $410.64 and $428.76 on the day, with a closing price of $428.30.

Things looked dim for a turnaround given the sharp decline to open the trading day and the news of war. 

The S&P 500 rallied and closed the day up 2%. The sharp rebound in the S&P 500 made history as one of only three days in trading history that accomplished the following:

• Open down more than 2%
• Fell to a six-month low
• Closed up by more than 1%

The other days that accomplished this feat were July 24, 2002 and Sept. 16, 2008.

Related Link: How The Stock Market Performs In Times Of War 

Why It’s Important: On Thursday, all three major indexes rebounded after significantly lower opening prints. 

The Nasdaq composite was up 3.3% to 13,473. The Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ closed 3.4% higher at $340.49 on Thursday.

The Dow Jones composite was up 1% to 11,179 on Thursday. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA was up 0.3% to $332.34 on Thursday.

One user on Twitter was quick to point out the last time the feat occurred (Sept. 16, 2008), the S&P 500 fell 39% over the next month and fell 45% over the next six months.

The U.S. military conflict after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 led to a decline in the S&P 500. The index declined 7.4% from Sept. 10, 2001 to Sept. 10, 2003.

The S&P 500 gained 29.1% during the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War (March 1965 to March 1973). The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 50% during World War II (Sept. 1, 1939 to Aug. 31, 1945).

It's unknown whether the U.S. will get involved in the Eastern European conflict or that it will be as lengthy as past wars.

The sharp drop in price for indexes Thursday and the rebound showed how volatile the stock market can be during times of uncertainty.

SPY Price Action: Shares of the SPY ETF are up 0.8% at $431.73 Friday morning. Shares have traded between $371.88 and $479.98 over the last 52 weeks.