The Dow’s 5 best and worst days

Here are the five biggest single-day gains and losses in the Dow Jones industrial average’s history, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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March 23, 2009

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange when the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its fifth largest single-day point gain.The Treasury's plan to to help banks remove toxic assets from their balance sheets sparked a huge rally and investors welcomed better-than-expected news on existing home sales. The Dow gained 497.48 points that day.

Seth Wenig / AP

March 16, 2000

Traders on Wall Street in New York applaud at the end of the trading day on the Dow's fourth best day ever. The rally sent the index soaring 499.19 points.

Chris Hondros / Getty Images

Nov. 13, 2008

Traders crowd the post of Hercules Inc. at the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow saw a late-day rally after stocks were either in the red or flat for most of the day. A rebound was in part triggered by automated buy orders as the Dow approached a low for the year. The index gained 552.59 points, the third largest point jump in the Dow's history.

Richard Drew / AP

Oct. 28, 2008

Wall Street broker Salvatore A. Suarino works the phones on the day the Dow had its second-largest point gain. Markets surged as credit started to thaw and the Fed's debt-buying program gained traction. The Dow closed up 889.35 points.

David Karp / AP

Oct. 13, 2008

Traders including John Strazza, center, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on the Dow's best day ever. Stocks rallied worldwide, and oil climbed from a 13-month low after governments in Europe, the U.S. and Asia agreed to support banks. The Dow gained 936.42 points.

Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

Oct. 9, 2008

On the fifth worst day for the Dow, the index fell below 9000 for the first time since 2003 as higher borrowing costs and slower consumer spending spurred concern carmakers, insurers and energy companies will be the next victims of the credit crisis. The Dow fell 678.91 points.

Jin Lee / Bloomberg

Dec. 1, 2008

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on the fourth worst day the Dow has seen. The index closed down nearly 680 points following negative economic reports. That day, the National Bureau of Economic Research said that the U.S. economy had been in a recession since December 2007.

Mario Tama / Getty Images

Sept. 17, 2001

Fran Gleason, an options trader for Schwab, screams out a trade in the frenzied opening at the Chicago Board Options Exchange on the Dow's third worst day ever as it lost 684.81 points.

John Zich / Via Bloomberg

Oct. 15, 2008

A trader works near a monitor displaying trading activity on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. U.S. stocks slumped on the Dow's second worst day ever as they were hammered by the biggest drop in retail sales in three years and doubt grew that plans to bail out banks will keep the nation out of a prolonged recession. The Dow closed down 733.08 points.

Jin Lee / Bloomberg

Sept. 29, 2008

The biggest one-day drop for the Dow occurred Sept. 29, 2008, after the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion plan to rescue the financial system. The index dropped 777.68 points.

Jin Lee / Bloomberg

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