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In One Chart

Here’s just how crazy this week was for the stock market, in one big chart

This Christmas week really was one for the history books. Whiplash, anyone?

On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial DJIA+1.34% , the S&P 500 SPX+1.6% and the Nasdaq Composite COMP+2.26% all booked their ugliest-ever plunges in the shortened Christmas Eve trading session. All three indexes rebounded Wednesday, only to sink early Thursday and then turn around in dramatic fashion to finish the session higher. The week finished Friday with an indecisive whimper, as stocks flipped back and forth between gains and losses all day long.

The week’s sharp moves were attributed mostly to light holiday trading volume and computer-driven trading. But the ups and downs during a usually calm period are no doubt stoking investor anxiety about what’s to come.

As we gear up for one more day of 2018 trade and a (fresh?) start in the New Year, let’s revisit some of the most eye-popping stats and charts ...

Ugliest pre-Christmas trading day on record

• On Monday, the Dow finished down 653 points, or 2.9%, representing its worst decline during a session prior to Christmas in the 122-year-old blue-chip gauge’s history, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

• The S&P 500 fell by 2.7%, marking the first session before Christmas that it booked a loss of 1% or greater — ever.

• The Nasdaq logged a 2.2% loss, the worst drop for a pre-Christmas trading session in its less extensive history, with the next worst drop the 0.95% decline logged in 1973.

By the time Monday’s shortened trading session was over:

• Every S&P 500 sector was negative for the year.

• Utilities became the only S&P sector not in a correction or bear market.

• Many indexes hit bottoms, with the S&P Composite 1500 entering a bear market.

• The S&P 500 was just 0.02% shy of officially entering a bear market (an amount so negligible many simply called it for the bears — though lines do have to be drawn somewhere).

Best day-after-Christmas trading day on record

Then Wednesday it was as if Christmas Eve had never happened, with stocks more than offsetting their staggering losses from the previous session:

• The Dow logged its first-ever 1,000-point single-session gain.

• The Dow and S&P 500 rose 5%, and the Nasdaq 5.8% — for all three indexes, that was good enough for the largest one-day percentage gain since March 23, 2009.

• The FAANG stocks — Facebook FB+2.12% , Apple AAPL+3.75% , Amazon AMZN+2.49% , Netflix NFLX+2.07% and Google parent Alphabet GOOG+1.17% GOOGL+1.14% — posted the largest one-day market-cap gain on record, lifting their aggregate equity valuation by $163.7 billion.

• Retailers were big gainers, with Amazon soaring more than 9% after the company said it had registered another record holiday season.

Biggest one-day turnaround in years

• The Dow swung from a 2.67% decline at its Thursday session low to a positive finish, up 1.1% — its biggest such intraday swing since Oct. 4, 2011, when it recovered from a fall of 2.75% at its low.

• The Thursday turnabout was the most dramatic such swing for the S&P 500 since May 25, 2010, and the biggest for the Nasdaq since Nov. 18, 2008.

• The materials sector led gains with a 1.8% rise, with health care, energy, consumer staples and industrials all rising more than 1%.

• The Cboe Volatility Index VIX-7.47% wound up just a shade below 30 — had it closed above that level, for the fourth day in a row, that would have been its longest streak since a 14-day run that ended in November 2011. The index has a long-term average near 20.

Green red green red green red …

Stocks might only have been stopped from a day of skipping back and forth between relatively small losses and gains by Friday’s closing bell.

• For the week, the Dow rose 2.8%, while the S&P 500 climbed 2.9% and the Nasdaq registered a weekly gain of 4%.

• All three indexes marked their first weekly gains after three straight weekly declines.

What’s next?

MarketWatch users seem to be banking on more volatility, if our Twitter poll is any indication:

Over the course of 2019, Wall Street strategists are betting on gains. And, in the nearer term, some predict earnings will set the tone for the market in January and, assuming all looks good, calm the waters. On the other hand, others are warning that Wednesday’s big rally (and the subsequent gains) could just be a “wicked bear trap” for investors to fall into — a “sucker’s rally.”

Plenty of talk about whether these types of moves indicate that a bottom is in … or not … and everyone has an opinion. Here are some stats looking to the end of the year:

• All three indexes are sharply down in December, with the S&P and Dow having lost more than 9% and the Nasdaq more than 10%.

• The Nasdaq entered a bear market this month, defined as a 20% pullback from a recent peak, while the S&P 500 and Dow remain solidly in correction territory.

• The indexes are all poised for annual losses for the first time since 2008, with the Dow and S&P 500 on pace for their worst December since 1931.

• Here are the levels at which the Dow and S&P will officially enter a bear market ... just in case you want to keep these figures handy:

Where the Dow Jones Industrial Average would enter a bear market: 21,462.71 (current level, as of Friday close: 23,062.40).

Where the S&P 500 would enter a bear market: 2,344.60 (current level, as of Friday close: 2,485.74).

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