March 23, 2020, is widely used as the date of the 2020 COVID-19 stock-market crash low in the United States.
On March 23, the S&P 500 reached its closing low for the crash, at 2,237.40. The decline followed the global spread of COVID-19, lockdowns, travel restrictions, collapsing economic expectations, and a sharp oil-price dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia. In the United States, trading was interrupted several times by circuit breakers as prices fell rapidly.
The low did not mark the end of economic damage. Unemployment surged, businesses closed or reduced activity, and governments and central banks introduced extraordinary fiscal and monetary support. Nevertheless, financial markets rebounded strongly after March 23 as investors anticipated policy assistance and eventual economic reopening.
February 19, 2020, is important because it was the S&P 500’s pre-crash closing peak. The March date therefore identifies the trough, not the beginning of the market’s decline or the end of the pandemic’s economic effects.