The S&P 500 fell about 49% during the 1973–1974 bear market.
The decline took the S&P 500 from its January 1973 closing high to its October 1974 low. Because the index represents a broad group of large U.S. companies, its performance is often used to summarize the period’s damage to American equities.
Several forces combined to produce the fall. The 1973 oil crisis sharply increased energy costs, while inflation, recession fears, and declining economic confidence weakened expectations for corporate profits. The Watergate scandal added political uncertainty, although it was not the sole cause of the bear market.
The S&P 500’s roughly 49% peak-to-trough loss is different from the Dow’s point or percentage figures and from the Nasdaq’s much later technology-bubble decline. The exact result depends on whether calculations use closing prices, intraday levels, and dividends, so “about 49%” is the standard price-index description.