Recently, the stock market has been moving in large jumps. The table below shows the 25 largest one day changes in the Dow Jones Industrial Average between 1928-97. You can see that 12 of the 25 largest drops in modern history have occurred in the last 15 months. Likewise, 15 out of the 25 largest increases in modern history have occurred in the last 15 months.
| Largest Daily Changes in the DJIA, 1928-97 | ||||||||
| Rank | Date | DJ | Change | % Change | Date | DJ | Change | % Change |
| 1 | 10/19/87 | 1738.74 | -508.00 | -22.61% | 10/21/87 | 2027.85 | 186.84 | 10.15% |
| 2 | 10/13/89 | 2569.26 | -190.58 | -6.91% | 12/19/96 | 6473.64 | 126.87 | 2.00% |
| 3 | 3/8/96 | 5470.45 | -171.24 | -3.04% | 1/17/91 | 2623.51 | 114.60 | 4.57% |
| 4 | 7/15/96 | 5349.51 | -161.05 | -2.92% | 3/11/96 | 5581.00 | 110.55 | 2.02% |
| 5 | 3/13/97 | 6878.89 | -160.48 | -2.28% | 2/12/97 | 6961.63 | 103.52 | 1.51% |
| 6 | 3/31/97 | 6583.48 | -157.11 | -2.33% | 10/20/87 | 1841.01 | 102.27 | 5.88% |
| 7 | 10/26/87 | 1793.93 | -156.83 | -8.04% | 1/3/97 | 6544.09 | 101.60 | 1.58% |
| 8 | 1/8/88 | 1911.31 | -140.58 | -6.85% | 3/24/97 | 6905.25 | 100.46 | 1.48% |
| 9 | 3/27/97 | 6740.59 | -140.11 | -2.04% | 3/18/96 | 5683.60 | 98.63 | 1.77% |
| 10 | 11/15/91 | 2943.20 | -120.31 | -3.93% | 11/6/96 | 6177.71 | 96.53 | 1.59% |
| 11 | 7/5/96 | 5588.14 | -114.88 | -2.01% | 3/5/97 | 6945.85 | 93.13 | 1.36% |
| 12 | 10/16/87 | 2246.74 | -108.35 | -4.60% | 2/22/96 | 5608.46 | 92.49 | 1.68% |
| 13 | 12/18/95 | 5075.21 | -101.52 | -1.96% | 10/29/87 | 1938.33 | 91.51 | 4.96% |
| 14 | 4/14/88 | 2005.64 | -101.46 | -4.82% | 10/16/89 | 2657.38 | 88.12 | 3.43% |
| 15 | 12/31/96 | 6448.27 | -101.10 | -1.54% | 8/21/91 | 3001.79 | 88.10 | 3.02% |
| 16 | 12/12/96 | 6303.71 | -98.81 | -1.54% | 12/23/91 | 3022.58 | 88.10 | 3.00% |
| 17 | 1/10/96 | 5032.94 | -97.19 | -1.89% | 7/18/96 | 5464.18 | 87.30 | 1.62% |
| 18 | 2/4/94 | 3871.40 | -96.30 | -2.43% | 5/31/95 | 4465.14 | 86.46 | 1.97% |
| 19 | 10/14/87 | 2412.70 | -95.46 | -3.81% | 8/2/96 | 5679.83 | 85.08 | 1.52% |
| 20 | 1/23/97 | 6755.75 | -94.28 | -1.38% | 1/29/97 | 6740.74 | 84.66 | 1.27% |
| 21 | 4/2/97 | 6517.01 | -94.04 | -1.42% | 1/30/97 | 6823.86 | 83.12 | 1.23% |
| 22 | 8/6/90 | 2716.34 | -93.31 | -3.32% | 2/7/97 | 6855.80 | 82.74 | 1.22% |
| 23 | 2/20/97 | 6927.38 | -92.75 | -1.32% | 4/5/94 | 3675.41 | 82.06 | 2.28% |
| 24 | 10/6/87 | 2548.63 | -91.55 | -3.47% | 12/9/96 | 6463.94 | 82.00 | 1.28% |
| 25 | 11/22/94 | 3677.99 | -91.52 | -2.43% | 8/27/90 | 2611.63 | 78.71 | 3.11% |
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A table showing the largest changes in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index from 1928-97 is available here.
A table showing the largest percentage changes in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index from 1928-97 is available here.
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