The Dow Jones Industrial Average had its third-best daily point gain in history Wednesday, rising about 619 points.
Aug. 21 and 25 were historically large losses for the market. The 531-point drop on Friday is the 10th-worst of all time, while Monday’s 589-point drop is eighth worst.
The largest point gain in history occurred on October 13, 2008, when the market gained 936 points in one day. That day, stocks rallied in response to governments around the world announcing aid for big banks during the Great Recession. None of the 20 best daily gains occurred before 2000.
While a 619-point rise is good news, it would be more revealing to compare historical daily rallies by the percentage of the market rise. By this standard, Wednesday’s rally of 4 percent isn’t so great, historically speaking.
The best percentage gain in history came on March 15, 1933, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 15.3 percent. The market opened that day at one of its lowest points during the Great Depression before rallying. The 20th-best gain came on March 23, 2009, when the market rose by 6.8 percent, according to The Wall Street Journal. Wednesday’s 4 percent rally is well underneath the threshold required to break the 20 best days in market history. To have risen 6.8 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average would have had to gain more than 1,072 points Wednesday.
