Closing milestones of the S&P 500

This article is a summary of the closing milestones of the S&P 500 Index, a United States stock market index.

Price history & milestones
Launched by the Standard Statistics Company in 1926 as the successor to its 1923 233-stock weekly index, the Composite Stock Index was a daily 90-stock index that preceded the S&P 500. Following continual daily closure records from 17.66 in December 1927 to 31.71 in August 1929, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 began a trend of daily closure losses that would see the index fall to a record low of 4.43 by June 1932. While the index saw a degree of recovery in subsequent years, closing at 18.09 in February 1937, it would not surpass its pre-Great Depression record until its closure at 32.31 in September 1954.

In March 1957 the index was expanded to its current 500-stock structure and renamed the S&P 500 Stock Composite Index. Subsequently, closing beyond 50 for the first time in September 1958, the continued post-World War II boom in the United States would see the index nearly double to a closing price of 94.06 on February 9, 1966. The subsequent 1970s bull market and early 1980s bull depression would slow growth of the index for over a decade. As a result of the mid-1980s bull market, the index would more than triple from 102.42 on August 12, 1982, to 336.77 on August 25, 1987. The subsequent stock market crash on October 19, 1987 (Black Monday) saw the index lose 20.47% of its value, its highest daily percentage loss to date. Falling to 230.30 by November 1987, the index would take until July 26, 1989, to recover to its pre-crash high of 336.77.

Closing above 500 for the first time on March 24, 1995, the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s fueled increased market growth through the turn of the millennium, with the S&P 500 surpassing 800 on February 12, 1997, and 1,000 on February 2, 1998, with an intraday high of 1,552.87 on March 24, 2000. As a result of the 2002 stock market downturn, the index fell to 768.83 by October 10, 2002, and would take until October 11, 2007, to surpass its March 2000 intraday trading high. While a brief bull market in 2007 saw the index achieve new record closures of 1,530.23 on May 30 through to 1,565.15 on October 9, the bursting of the United States housing bubble caused mortgage-backed securities to collapse in value, precipitating a financial crisis and global recession. These events, including the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, caused substantial market volatility that resulted in the S&P 500 closing up or down 3 percent or more 29 times in the fourth quarter of 2008. This included an increase of 11.6% on October 13, 2008, the index's highest daily percentage gain to date.

In the year since its record closure of 1,565.15 in October 2007, the index fell by over 50% to 752.44 on November 20, 2008, its lowest point since March 1997. Closing the year at 903.25—a yearly loss of 38.5%—the index continued to decline in the first quarter of 2009, with the 2007-2009 bear market reaching a trough of 666 on March 6, 2009. The drawdown from the high in October 2007 to the low in March 2009 was 56.8%, the largest since World War II. Despite this, the index recovered substantially in the following year, closing at 822.92 on March 23, 2009, and at 1,115.10 by the end of the year, making 2009 the index's second-best year of the decade. On April 14, 2010, the index closed at 1,210.65, its first close above 1,200 since August 2008.

The index subsequently experienced a degree of volatility, falling to 1,022.58 by July 2, 2010, rising to 1,363.61 by April 29, 2011, and falling again below 1,100 by October 4, 2011, the latter due to the August 2011 stock markets fall. While this period of volatility continued into 2012 amid electoral and fiscal uncertainty and round 3 of quantitative easing, the index closed the year at 1,426.19, an annual gain of 13% and its biggest gain in 3 years. On March 28 and April 10, 2013, the index's October 2007 closing and intraday trading highs, respectively, were surpassed for the first time, recovering all losses incurred during the Great Recession. The index surpassed 2,000 for the first time on August 26, 2014, reaching an all-time closing high of 2,130.82 on May 21, 2015. It would not be surpassed until July 11, 2016, due to a market decline precipitated by the 2015–2016 stock market selloff and 2015–2016 Chinese stock market turbulence. The index surpassed 2,500 on September 25, 2017, finishing the year up 19.4%, its best since 2013.

The index rose for the tenth month running in January 2018, falling 4% the next month in part due to the doubling of market volatility on February 5. Following a strong third quarter and a weak fourth quarter, the year ended with the index declining by 6%, its worst year in a decade. High market growth in the next two quarters reversed the prior year's losses by April 2019, with the index surpassing 3,000 on July 10. The index closed the year with a growth rate of 28.9%, among its best to date. While the index reached a new closing peak of 3,386.15 on February 19, 2020, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and recession saw it lose 10% of its value in the next six trading days, its fastest drop from a new peak to date. At the trough of the 2020 stock market crash on March 23, 2020, the index had fallen 34% from its February peak. While the index fell by 20% by the end of the first quarter, its worst since 2008, it realized a 20% gain in the second quarter, its best since 1998. The index reached a new record high of 3,756.07 by the end of the year, closing above 4,000 for the first time on April 1, 2021. By the end of the year the index closed 70 of the year's 252 trading days at new record closing prices, the second highest to date behind the 77 recorded in 1995. 2021 also marked the first year since 2005 when the S&P 500 beat the other two closely watched U.S. stock indices: the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite.

History


Standard & Poor's, initially known as the Standard Statistics Company, created its first stock market index in 1923. It consisted of 233 different stocks and was computed on a weekly basis. Three years later, it developed a 90 component composite price index that was computed on a daily basis; that was expanded over the years. On March 4, 1957, the Standard & Poor's 500 (.INX) (.SPX) was introduced.

Milestone highs

 * February 2, 1998: The S&P 500 index reaches 1,000 points, closing at 1001.27.
 * March 24, 2000: The S&P 500 index reaches an all-time intraday high of 1552.87 during the dot-com bubble. It hit this level again on July 13, 2007.
 * October 9, 2007: The index closes at a record high of 1565.15, the highest
 * prior to the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Two days later, the index hits an intraday record high of 1576.09. It did not regain this closing level until April 10, 2013.
 * August 26, 2014: The S&P 500 index reaches 2,000 points, closing at 2,000.02.
 * July 20, 2019: The S&P 500 index reaches 3,000 points, closing at 3,013.77.
 * February 19, 2020: The S&P 500 index reached its highest point in the bull market that started from the low point on March 9, 2009, closing at 3386.15.
 * August 18, 2020: The S&P 500 index closed at a record high of 3389.78 amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
 * April 1, 2021: The S&P 500 index reaches 4,000 points, closing at 4,019.87.
 * February 9, 2024: The S&P 500 index reaches 5,000 points, closing at 5,026.61.

Milestone lows

 * March 9, 2009: S&P 500 closed at 676.53 (it hit a 666.79 intraday low on March 6), its closing low after the onset of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.

Milestone changes

 * October 19, 1987: S&P 500 registers its largest daily percentage loss, falling 20.47 percent. The one-day crash, known as "Black Monday," was blamed on program trading and those using a hedging strategy known as portfolio insurance. Despite the losses, the S&P 500 still closed positive for the year.
 * February 5, 2018: After months of low volatility, S&P 500 registers a new largest daily point loss of 113.19 points, equivalent to more than 4%. Three days later, the index suffered another heavy loss of nearly the same amount.
 * October 13, 2008: S&P 500 marks its best daily percentage gain, rising 11.58 percent. It also registers its then-largest single-day point increase of 104.13 points.
 * December 26, 2018: While on pace for the worst December performance since the Great Depression, S&P 500 registers a new largest daily point gain of 116.60 points, which translates to roughly 5% on the index.
 * December 31, 2008: For the year, S&P 500 falls 38.49 percent, its worst yearly percentage loss. In September 2008, Lehman Brothers collapsed as the financial crisis spread.
 * March 16, 2020: The S&P 500 index suffered its worst daily decline since 1987's Black Monday, falling 9.5 percent, as a result of anxiety about the coronavirus pandemic. The decline of more than 20% since its peak, only 16 trading days earlier, signaled the start of a bear market closing at 2,480.64.
 * June 8, 2023: The S&P 500 advanced 26.41 points, or 0.6%, to end at 4,293.93 Thursday, its highest closing level since Aug. 16, 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The 4,292.44 level marked a 20% rally off the bear-market closing low of 3,577.03 set on Oct. 12, 2022. By closing above that threshold, the S&P met a widely used definition of the end of a bear market.

Total return index
The total return index takes dividends into account.

Incremental closing milestones
The following is a list of the milestone closing levels of the S&P 500. 1-point increments are used up to the 20-point level; 2 to 50; 5 to 100; 10 to 500; 20 to 1,000; 50 to 3,000; and 100-point increments thereafter. Bold formatting is applied to every five milestones, excluding peaks.