Forget the Santa rally, the stock market is fending off one of its worst Decembers in recent memory, and now the Nasdaq has finished in a bear market. It’s a scenario that may unofficially commence the end of the longest equity market bull run, by some measures, in history.

The Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.36% closed 3% lower on Friday at 6,332.99, contributing 21.9% drop from its all-time high of 8,109.69 hit on Aug. 29. Wall Street’s widely accepted definition of a bear market is a drop of at least 20% from a recent peak.

On an intraday basis, the Nasdaq briefly fell into a bear market on Thursday, slipping to a low Thursday of 6,484.04 from its Aug. 30 intraday high of 8,133.30. Dow Jones gauges bear markets on a closing basis rather than intraday.

According to Dow Jones Market Data, the last time the Nasdaq entered a bear market was March 3, 2009.

Meanwhile, other subindexes having already retreated by 20% from their peaks, including the Russell 2000 index RUT, +0.02% of small-capitalization stocks and the Dow Jones Transportation Average DJT, +0.20% less than 24 hours ago.

Read:The last key death cross has engulfed the stock market

On Wednesday, already-fragile stocks took a notable leg lower after the Federal Reserve lifted short-term interest rates for the fourth time this year (the ninth time since 2015) and delivered forecasts for future hikes that was less supportive to a market rally than investors had hoped.

The Fed raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point to a range of 2.25% to 2.50%, as widely expected, and Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that rate increases in 2019 were dialed back to two from three.

However, investors decided that monetary policy makers weren’t sufficiently responding to a market that has spiraled lower since early October, with all three of the main equity benchmarks, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.19% and the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.29% already in correction territory, usually defined as a decline of at least 10% from a peak.

Read: Opinion: There’s a darker message for investors in the FAANG selloff

The bull market has thrived amid a decade of financial and political upheaval, thanks in part to the all-you-can-eat liquidity feast hosted by the Federal Reserve and other major central banks.

Check out: Powell party pooper: Here are the worst-performing stocks after the Fed wrecks the market

And perhaps no index has enjoyed that backdrop more than the Nasdaq, with its contingent of high-powered components, including Facebook FB, +0.20% , Apple AAPL, +1.02% , Amazon.com AMZN, +0.66% , Netflix NFLX, +0.52% and Google-parent Alphabet GOOG, +0.92% GOOGL, +0.95% — a contingent of companies known as FAANGs, which by dint of their outsize market values and share prices have helped deliver the most significant contributions to gains over the past 10 years.

Last year, the Nasdaq led its peers, returning 28% for the full year, compared with a gain of 25% for the Dow and 19.4% for the S&P 500. Thus far in 2018, the S&P 500 is on track to shed 9.6% in value, the Dow has a year-to-date decline of 9.2%, while the Nasdaq thus far down 8.3% in 2018.

A separate index, representing the largest companies in the Nasdaq, the Nasdaq-100 NDX, +0.58% , also entered a bear market on Friday, down 21% from its late-August peak, according to FactSet data.

Read:Text of FOMC statement for December

The Fed has shifted to an apparently tighter stance advocated by Powell and the market isn’t dealing with the transition well, as it implies increased borrowing costs for institutions and individuals and more competition from fixed-income assets that will offer richer yields with theoretically less risk.

On Aug. 22, 2018, many market pundits hailed the stock market unofficially becoming the longest bull run on record, having avoided an “official” 20% bear market. That move surpassed the Oct. 11, 1990 to March 24, 2000 bull market.

(To be sure, some market participants take issue with that record, including Stock Trader’s Almanac Jeff Hirsch.)

In any case, that uninterrupted record of gains, unofficial or not, appears to be coming to an end.