Financial Sector Now Officially in Bear Mode

Below we highlight the price chart of the S&P 500 Financial sector from 1989 to present. We specifically looked at periods where severe declines occurred in the sector to compare them to the current declines.

The most comparable period to now would be the 86 day decline in 1998 during the Russian debt crisis. During that time, the sector went down a total of 35% before rebounding to new highs quickly in the Spring of '99. The other period we looked at was the broader market declines during the bear market from 2000 to 2002 in which the Financials dropped 30% over 1,058 days. In the most current period, the Financial sector has taken a beating, but it is still only down 20% from its highs 261 days ago. To reach the bottom that was reached back in October 1998, the Financial sector would have to fall another 18% from here.

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