The S&P 500 suffered a closing percentage loss of 33.9% during the 2020 COVID-19 market crash.
The decline ran from the index’s February 19, 2020 record close to its March 23 low. Investors reacted to the rapid spread of COVID-19, business closures, travel restrictions, collapsing economic expectations and an oil-price shock.
The fall was unusually fast. The S&P 500 entered a bear market in March, while major exchanges repeatedly activated short-term circuit breakers during violent sessions. Massive fiscal and monetary responses, along with improving expectations about vaccines and reopening, helped markets rebound later in 2020.
The 33.9% figure describes the S&P 500’s peak-to-trough closing decline, not a single day’s loss. The index’s exact path differed from that of the Dow, Nasdaq and international markets, so those measures should not be treated as interchangeable.