This is a list of the largest daily changes in the

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity inde ...

from 1896. Compare to the list of largest daily changes in the S&P 500 Index.

Largest percentage changes

The first four tables show only the largest one-day changes between a given day's close and the close of the previous

trading day In business, the trading day or regular trading hours (RTH) is the time span that a stock exchange is open, as opposed to electronic or extended trading hours (ETH). For example, the New York Stock Exchange is, as of 2020, open from 9:30 AM Easte ...

, not the largest changes during the trading day (i.e. intraday changes). Some sources (including the fil
Highlights/Lowlights of The Dow
on th
Dow Jones website
show a loss of −24.39% (from 71.42 to 54.00) on December 12, 1914, placing that day atop the list of largest percentage losses. The

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

reopened that day following a nearly four-and-a-half-month closure since July 30, 1914, and the Dow in fact rose 4.4% that day (from 71.42 to 74.56). However, the apparent decline was due to a later 1916 revision of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which retroactively adjusted the values following the closure but not those before, and it represents the only discontinuity in the index's history rather than an actual loss.

Largest point changes

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was first published in 1896, but since the firms listed at that time were in existence before then, the index can be calculated going back to May 2, 1881. A loss of just over 24 percent on May 5, 1893, from 39.90 to 30.02 signaled the apex of the stock effects of the

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States that began in 1893 and ended in 1897. It deeply affected every sector of the economy, and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment of 1896 and the pres ...

; the 2008–09 crash was a 61.8 percent retracement thereof that began on October 11, 2007, and lasted until the closing low on March 9, 2009. The largest point drop in history occurred on March 16, 2020, when concerns over the ongoing

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

engulfed the market, dropping the Dow Jones Industrial Average 2,997 points. The largest point gain (+2,113) occurred on March 24, 2020. As of August 4, 2020, all of the top seven and eight of the top ten largest point drops and point gains have been amid the

2020 stock market crash On 20 February 2020, stock markets across the world suddenly crashed after growing instability due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ended on 7 April 2020. Beginning on 13 May 2019, the yield curve on U.S. Treasury securities inverted, and rema ...

, which has been marked by extreme point swings.

Largest intraday point swings

A point swing is the difference between the intraday high and the intraday low. (The intraday high may not be the same as the opening price; for instance, in the 2010 Flash Crash, the market reached an intraday high, higher than the opening price.) This is distinguished from an intraday point drop or gain, which is the difference between the opening price and the intraday low or high. This table shows the largest intraday point swings since 1987. As the "Net Change" column shows, 11 of these 20 largest intraday swings occurred during days on which the Dow declined, and 9 occurred during days on which it advanced. None of the top 20 occurred before the year 2018. During the

, fourteen of the top seventeen positions occurred in the month of March 2020.

Largest intraday point changes

Largest intraday point changes with turnovers

References

External links

Dow Jones Indexes , Averages

Dow Jones Indexes , Averages , Statistics

Dow Jones Indexes , DJIA Historical Stock Prices
{{Stock market crashes Economy-related lists of superlatives