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What Happened?

On this day in 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed at their lowest levels of the Great Recession.

Where The Market Was?

The S&P 500 closed at 676.53 and the Dow closed at 6,547.05.

What Else Was Going On In The World? In 2009, Barack Obama became the first African American U.S. president. Pop icon Michael Jackson died at age 50. The average price of a new house was $232,880.

Market Finally Hits Bottom

Three days after hitting its lowest intraday price of the financial crisis, the S&P 500 reached its lowest closing price of 2009 on March 9. Concerns about the solvency of major U.S. banks and the integrity of the U.S. financial system triggered heavy selling pressure throughout late 2008 and early 2009.

Neither President George W. Bush's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Plan in October 2008 nor President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package in February 2009 could stop the bleeding. The Federal Reserve took unprecedented measures to support the economy as well, cutting interest rates to 0% for the first time in history.

By the time the S&P 500 bottomed in March 2009, the index had wiped out more than a decade of gains, generating an overall negative return of -47.1% from March 9, 1999 to March 9, 2009.

Fortunately for investors, the financial system didn’t collapse and stocks eventually recovered. Investors who bought the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust bottom generated a 394.2% total return over the next 10 years.