For investors, 2009 will go down as the year we survived the Great Recession and were able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
After enduring a near-freefall in the early, panicky months of the year, the stock market mounted a tremendous rally in the final nine months, sending major indexes up more than 60 percent from their frightening, bear-market lows.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed the year on a losing note Thursday but still was near its highest level of the year at about 10,428, a gain of 18.8 percent over its 2008 close. That marked the best annual showing since 2003.
The stock market’s surprising rally helped replenish retirement funds and investment coffers for big investment funds and millions of ordinary investors who endured a deeply painful 2008, when the stock market lost more than one-third of its value in the worst year since the Great Depression.
Still, celebrations might be muted as Wall Street wrapped its first-ever negative decade on a total-return basis, even with dividends reinvested.
The double-digit percentage gain for 2009 was especially impressive given the way the year started.
A dismal holiday shopping season, a spate of major layoffs and worries about the financial crisis sent the stock market into a tailspin in the early months of 2009. Between Jan. 2 and March 9, the Dow lost nearly 28 percent in value, hitting a low of 6,547 on March 9. That represented a loss of more than 50 percent from its peak over 14,000 in 2007.
Then, even as the recession continued to drag on the economy and the unemployment rate climbed, the Dow began clawing its way back as some investors apparently saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Moving in fits and starts, the Dow staged what would turn out to be an extensive rally, passing the 10,000 mark again on Nov. 5.
Even news on Nov. 6 that the unemployment rate had surpassed 10 percent — the highest level in more than two decades — did little to quell the stock market surge. In December the market crept up 0.8 percent.
The rally was good news for people who managed to hold on through the roller-coaster ride that began in September 2008, when Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy protection and Wall Street was engulfed by turmoil. Two weeks later, the Dow dropped a record 777 points after the House of Representatives failed to pass a financial bailout package. Hard money training.
Tags: Dow Jones Industrial, financial crisis, great depression, great recession, stock market
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