S&P 500 Flirts With Bear Market

May 21, 2022

The S&P 500 and stock market were under heavy pressure in early trading as the “R” word was thrown around. The S&P 500 was down as much as -2.3% earlier in the session. At the day’s lows, the S&P 500 was -20.9% below its intraday high in January, which would signal an entry into a bear market.

There’s no official bear market designation on Wall Street. Some will count Friday’s decline at the intraday lows as confirmation of a bear market, whereas some may say it’s not official until it closes -20% off its high. Regardless, it’s the biggest downturn of this magnitude since the rapid bear market in March 2020 at the onset of the pandemic.

The S&P 500 finished +0.01% higher to 3,901.36 on Friday. The DOW rose 8.77 points, or +0.03%, to 31,261.90, and the NASDAQ fell -0.30% to finish the week at 11,354.62.

For the week, the DOW lost -2.9% for its first eight-week losing streak since 1923. The S&P 500 lost -3.05% for the week, while the NASDAQ shed -3.82%, with both posting seven-week losing streaks.

As for Bitcoin, which we’ve been keeping an eye on, it’s staring a new record down. And that record would be its consecutive losing week record, which now stands at seven consecutive weeks.

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