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US Stock Exchange (NYSE and NASDAQ) History

1790
The federal government refinances all federal and state Revolutionary War debt, issuing $80 million in bonds. This was the first major issue of publicly traded securities.

1792
There are five securities traded in New York City. Three are government bonds and two are bank stocks.

Twenty-four prominent brokers and merchants gather on Wall Street to sign the Buttonwood Agreement, agreeing to trade securities on a commission basis.

1817
The New York brokers establish a formal organization, the New York Stock & Exchange Board (NYS&EB) and rent rooms at 40 Wall Street. They adopt a constitution with rules for the conduct of business.

1824
Annual trading at the NYS&EB had reached a peak of 380,000 shares by 1824, which declined to 15 percent of that number by 1829, remaining low through 1831.

1835
Average daily volume reaches 8,500 shares, a 50-fold increase in just seven years.

1837
Following the Panic of 1837, the average daily volume falls from 7,393 in January to 1,534 by June.

1844
The telegraph is invented, broadening market participation by facilitating communication with brokers and investors outside New York City.

1857
The Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Company collapses. Prices drop eight to ten percent in the course of a single trading session, the culmination of a 45% decline in market value since the beginning of the year.

1863
The New York Stock & Exchange Board becomes the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

1867
Invented by Edward A. Calahan, the stock ticker revolutionizes the stock market by bringing current prices to investors everywhere.

1873
Jay Cooke & Company, a prestigious Philadelphia banking firm, fails on September 19 due to over speculation in railroad stocks. The NYSE closes for ten days as a severe financial panic grips the nation.

1878
The first telephone is installed on the NYSE floor, just two years after Alexander Graham Bell conducts successful tests in Boston.

1882
Dow Jones & Company was founded by reporters Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. They published a small Customers' Afternoon Letter.

1889
Edward Jones converted the small Customers' Afternoon Letter into The Wall Street Journal, first published in 1889.

1896
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is published by the Wall Street Journal for the first time, with an initial value of 40.74. Among the twelve stocks that comprise the list are American Cotton Oil and Standard Rope and Twine.

1906
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) tops 100 for the first time.

1914
December 12 - The DJIA fell 24.39%, the largest one day drop, the Market had been closed since July due to the outbreak of the First World War.

1929
September 3 - After a fivefold increase in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the price peaked at 381.17.

October 24 - "Black Thursday" A record number of 12.9 million shares were traded on that day.

Monday October 28, "Black Monday", more investors decided to get out of the market, and the slide continued with a record 13% loss in the Dow. October 19, 1987 is also called "Black Monday".

Tuesday October 29, "Black Tuesday", The DJIA lost another 12% this day. The ticker did not stop running until about 7:45 that evening.

1932
July 8 the Dow closed at 41.22, the low for the decade.

1934The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 establishes the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Its two basic purposes: to provide full disclosure to investors and to prohibit fraud in connection with the sale of securities.

1953
October 10 - Volume of 900,000 shares marks the last daily volume under 1 million shares.

1971
The NASDAQ exchange is founded, acronym for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation. It began trading on February 8, it was the world's first electronic stock market.

1982
The NYSE experiences its first 100 million share day.

1984
Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company (CINB) in May 1984, which was and still is the largest bank resolution in US history (as of July 2008). Bank resolution means federal regulators took over or rescued the bank. See FDIC History 1987
October 19, "Black Monday", The Dow had second largest one-day percentage decline in stock market history.

1997
October 27 - The New York Stock Exchange had its third biggest points loss this day, as a result of a sell-off in Asia. Trading of stocks on the New York Stock Exchange was halted for the first time ever, and the NYSE market ending trading for the day at 3:35 PM.

October 28 - The New York Stock continued it downward slid in the morning, and closed at record 337.17 point gain on record volume of 1.21 billion shares. The NASDAQ closed with a record gain of 67.93 to 1,603.02. The NASDAQ also had record volume, seeing its first-ever one-billion share day with 1.23 billion shares trading.

1999
March 29 - The New York Stock Exchange closes above 10,000 for the first time at 10,006.78.

May 3 - The DJIA closes above 11,000 for the first time at 11,014.69.

2000
March 16 - The DJIA has its largest point gain today of 499.19 and closed at 10,630.6. 2001
January 3 - The NASDAQ stock Exchange had it largest one day percentage gain of 14.2 percent.

January 31 - The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) at its meeting today decided to lower its target for the federal funds rate by 50 basis points to 5-1/2 percent. In a related action, the Board of Governors approved a 50 basis point reduction in the discount rate to 5 percent.


September 11 - The NYSE was closed from September 11 until September 17, 2001 as a result of the attack on the World Trade Center.




September 17 - The greatest point loss in DJIA history was on this Monday, 684.81 points.


November 6 - The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate by 50 basis points to 2 percent. In a related action, the Board of Governors approved a 50 basis point reduction in the discount rate to 1.5 percent.

2006
October 19 - The New York Stock Exchange closes above 12,000 for the first time at 12,011.73.

2007
April 4 - NYSE Euronext, the first global marketplace group was created.

April 25 - The New York Stock Exchange (DJIA) closes above 13,000 for the first time at 13,089.89.

July 17 - The NYSE Dow intarday average saw 14,000 for the first time ever.

July 19 - The New York Stock Exchange (DJIA) closes above 14,000 for the first time at 14000.41, the NYSE volume this day was 3,279,147,000, and The NASDAQ closed at 2720.04.

September 18 - The Federal Reserve cut its overnight interest rate target for the first time in over four years, by half a percentage point to 4.75%, citing turmoil in financial markets as a threat to economic growth. It also cut the discount rate by a half percentage point to 5.25%. The Federal Reserve Press Release stated: The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 4-3/4 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 13,739.39, an increase of 335.97 points or 2.5 percent, largest one-day rise since Oct. 15, 2002, and largest percent rise since April 2, 2003. . Gold, silver, copper and oil were higher, and the dollar was lower. Asian financial markets rose on the news.

October 31 - The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 25 basis points to 4-1/2 percent.
Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; Timothy F. Geithner, Vice Chairman; Charles L. Evans; Donald L. Kohn; Randall S. Kroszner; Frederic S. Mishkin; William Poole; Eric S. Rosengren; and Kevin M. Warsh. Voting against was Thomas M. Hoenig, who preferred no change in the federal funds rate at this meeting.
In a related action, the Board of Governors unanimously approved a 25-basis-point decrease in the discount rate to 5 percent. In taking this action, the Board approved the requests submitted by the Boards of Directors of the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco.

2008

IndyMac Bank was taken over, or rescued by federal regulators on Friday July 11, The band had specialized in Alt-A mortgage loans. Alt-A loans are the financing of choice for most non-owner occupied, investment properties. This was one of the largest bank failures topped only by "Continental Illinois National Bank" (listed above) in 1984.



Officials with the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Housing Finance Agency took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage companies Sunday September 8. The government pledged up to $100 billion for each company in taxpayer dollars to prevent insolvency. Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, was founded in 1938 and converted to a private corporation in 1968. Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, was founded in 1970.

Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself to Bank of America on Sunday, September 14, for about $50 billion in Stock to keep the company help keep the comapny financially sound.

Lehman Brothers failed to find a buyer, early Monday morning, September 15, Lehman said it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York.

Tuesday, September 16 several ratings agencies downgraded the American International Group debt. American International Group had losses after it lost billions in the risky business of insuring against bond defaults, and sought a $40 billion lifeline from the Federal Reserve.

Tuesday night, September 16 the Federal Reserve agreed to give AIG a two-year, $85 billion loan in exchange for about 79 percent stake in the insurer.

Friday October 3, President Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Under the plan, the Treasury Department would be authorized to spend as much as $700 billion to buy bad mortgage-related securities.

Friday October 10, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ends the day and week at 8451.19 losing 1874.19 for the week, a drop of 18.15%, the S&P 500 and the NSADAQ each lost 15.3 percent, making this the worst weekly point decline in history. The DJIA had volume record volume today of 8,868,467,181 shares.

Monday October 13, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up a record 936.42 points or up 11.08% on volume of 7,236,438,000 shares, while the NASDAQ was up 194.74 points or up 11.81% (second largest percentage gain) on volume of 2,649,643,439 shares.

2009

February 27 - Citigroup Inc. aka Citibank took steps to convert $52.5 billion in preferred shares - including up to $25 billion held by the US government - into common equity. This will help Citigroup. The exchange, if fully executed, would leave the government with 36% of Citigroup's shares, existing shareholders' stake would decline to 26%.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 17.74 points, or 2.36 percent, to 735.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 13.63 points, or 0.98 percent, to 1,377.84. Friday's close marked the lowest level for the S&P 500 since December 1996. The S&P 500 is down 18.62 percent since the start of the year, its worst two-month start of the year on record.

Citibank (C) traded the most shares in history for any one stock or 1,866,786,000 shares.

March 5 - Wal-Mart (WMT) in a surprise move for this time in history, posted a 5.1% jump in February same-store sales, about double what analysts had expected, and approved an increase in the annual dividend to $1.09 per share, a 15% increase from the $0.95 per share paid before. Wal-Mart closed at $49.75 up $1.26 or 2.6% for the day. "The strength of our operations and the resulting strong financial position allow us to increase our dividend payout to shareholders again this year," said Chief Executive Mike Duke.

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