A Bear Market History

Last Friday's rollercoaster action, with the Dow Industrials swinging wildly from negative to positive, and back down again to end the day down 128 points, capped off one of the worst weeks in U.S. stock market history.

That gave the blue chips an 8-day loss of just under 2,400 - or 22.1%. To put it in perspective, the S&P 500 - the broader indicator that market pros prefer to use as a gauge - posted its worst weekly performance since 1933.

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow have dropped over 40% since making new all-time highs last October. Below, you can see a recap of S&P bear markets since 1970. Because it's fallen 46% from its peak this time around, it easily takes third place for worst recent history performance.

Out of the seven, the longest bear market was the March 2000 bear market, which lasted a total of 30 months. In contrast, the shortest only made it 3 months.

But the odds are against any shorter trends, since only three of the above-listed bear markets lasted 3 to 3½ months. The other four made it to the 18-month point or longer.

One of the more interesting points to note is that over half of them ended in the month of October. Is this significant? Only time will tell this time around.

Source: Sector Watch