The Last Twelve Trading Days

On 04 November 2008, before we knew if John McCain or Barack Obama would win the Presidential Election, the Dow Jones Industrials closed at 9625.28 points. On 05 November 2008, after Barack Obama was chosen as the next President of the United States, the DJIA opened at 9616.60 points.

Since that open, the Dow Jones Industrials have dropped 2064.31 points. That is a fall-off of over 21% in the twelve trading days since the announcement of President-Elect Obama, or roughly a 1.75% daily decline in the DJIA since Obama was elected.

For the sake of comparison, the DJIA opened at 9294.55 on the first trading day after the 11 September 2001 attacks, and dropped 343.96 points (3.7%) over the next twelve trading days. The lowest close in that entire period was 8235.81 points on 21 September 2001, a difference of 1058.74 points (11.39%) from the 17 September 2001 open, but still 683.52 points higher than today's close.

Uncertainty scares Wall Street, and right now the financial markets are not really sure what Congress and the incoming administration will do. Worse, they seem to be more uncertain of what America will face under Obama than they were of what America would face following the 11 September 2001 attacks.

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