There have been bigger declines in the equity market throughout history, but not many. In fact, for the S&P 500 and many sectors, larger one-day declines haven’t been seen in at least a decade. The S&P 500 fell more than 7.5%, which was the largest one-day decline for the index since 12/1/08. After today’s drop, the US equity benchmark is down to its lowest level since June 3rd of last year.

In terms of individual sectors, ground zero for the market was the Energy sector. Going back to 1989 when daily data begins, today’s 20.1% decline was the largest one-day drop on record, and the index is now at its lowest level since August 2004. That’s not a typo! The only other sector that was down more than 10% today was Financials, which saw its largest one-day decline since 4/20/09 and is at its lowest level since Christmas Eve 2018. Industrials was another hard-hit sector today, and while it was down less than 10%, the 9.2% drop was still the largest one-day fall since at least 1989 and took the index to its lowest level since January 2019.  

(Click on image to enlarge)

(Click on image to enlarge)