Dow Outperforms S&P, But Both Are Hurting

The Dow dropped Wednesday by 733.08 points to close at 8577.91. That's a loss of 7.87%. By percentage, this was worse than both October 9 (-7.33%) and September 29 (-6.98%). This was the worst day for the Dow since October 26, 1987, and it was the ninth-worst day ever. Three of the 19 worst days have come in the last 13 sessions.

The S&P 500 fell by 9.03% Wednesday, which was much worse than the Dow. The Dow has outperformed the S&P 500 on all three big plunges. It also performed on October 7, which was only a drop of 5.11%.

The Dow has been steadily outperforming the S&P for nearly three years. In fact, last week the Dow-to-S&P ratio hit a 5-1/2 year high. The ratio hasn't broken 9.5 yet, but it seems as if it's about to. The ratio hasn't been over 10 since 1966.