Blue Monday: Every Single Stock in S&P 500 Index Fell Monday

How bad was Monday for the U.S. stock market?

Every individual issue in the S&P 500 index dropped in value – in what might be an unprecedented event.

One a percentage basis, Monday’s 6.66 percent plunge was the worse session since Dec. 1, 2008 (in the wake of Lehman Brother’s collapse) when the index plummeted 8.93 percent.

Since reaching its high on April 29, 2011, the index has plunged 17.9 percent to the 1119.46 level. It would only have to decline to the 1090.89 mark in order to satisfy the requirement for a true bear market. (According to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P, four sectors have already entered bear market territory).

The index has not traversed to such a low level since last September.

Perhaps even more amazing, since July 22, only one component in the index has risen in value – Lexmark International Inc. (NYSE: LXK)

Of the other 499 ‘losers’, an astounding 207 have plunged at least 20 percent since that date.
Moreover, since the April 29 peak, only 14 issues in the index are up.

Over the past eleven days, the index has tumbled 16.77 percent, the worst such 11-day period since the market suffered a 21.03 percent decline ending on Nov. 20, 2008.

Finally, the S&P 500, which was introduced in 1957, has suffered 15 days when it lost at least 6 percent – Monday was one of them.