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The Dow has lost 12% in a volatile month

The stock market has whipsawed throughout the month, making unheard-of moves in just a matter of hours and days.

  • By Avie Schneider/NPR
Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, March 18, 2020. Global stock markets have sunk in a third day of wild price swings after President Donald Trump promised to prop up the U.S. economy through the coronavirus outbreak.

 Mark Lennihan / AP Photo

Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday, March 18, 2020. Global stock markets have sunk in a third day of wild price swings after President Donald Trump promised to prop up the U.S. economy through the coronavirus outbreak.

(New York) — The stock market has never seen a month like March. The Dow notched losses and gains of 1,000 points to as many as 3,000 points in a day in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic and its economic toll.

The Dow Jones Industrial average has recovered from recent lows, but it’s still down nearly 12% this month.

And the blue chip index is 24% below its recent peak in February. At its low on March 23, it was down a staggering 38% from the record high.

On Tuesday morning, the Dow was up 100 points, or about 0.5%. The S&P 500 inched up 0.3% and the Nasdaq gained more than 1%.

Trader Michael Gallucci prepares for the day's activity on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, March 9, 2020. Trading in Wall Street futures has been halted after they fell by more than the daily limit of 5%.

Richard Drew / AP Photo

Trader Michael Gallucci prepares for the day’s activity on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, March 9, 2020. Trading in Wall Street futures has been halted after they fell by more than the daily limit of 5%.

The stock market has whipsawed throughout the month, making unheard-of moves in just a matter of hours and days. The volatility triggered several automatic, temporary trading halts on the the New York Stock Exchange.

On March 16, the Dow lost a staggering 2,997 points — the most for a single day. That 13% drop was the steepest since the Black Monday crash of October 1987.

But the market saw dramatic ups, too.

The Dow soared 2,112 points March 24, breaking a single-day record that had been set just 11 days earlier on Friday the 13th. The index gained nearly 11.4% on March 24 — the most since 1933.

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