Small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 becomes first major U.S. stock measure to enter bear market [View all]

Source: CNBC

Published Thu, Apr 3 2025 12:45 PM EDT | Updated 27 Min Ago


Small-cap stocks, which were once thought to be primary beneficiaries of President Donald Trump’s policies, entered bear market territory on Thursday after a massive stock market rout that followed the administration’s sweeping and aggressive tariff rollout.

The Russell 2000 Index was down more than 5% on Thursday, bringing its losses from its November 25 record close to about 21%. On Wall Street, a 10% pullback is considered a correction, but a 20% decline is a bear market. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are both in correction territory, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is just below that mark.

“They’re getting hit because the economy is softening. That’s going to hurt profits,” Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist, told CNBC. “On the other side, they’re still paying high levels of interest payments on debt because they have more of this floating-rate debt.” “They’re getting squeezed on both sides,” he said.

This is a sharp reversal from the gains seen in the trading days following November’s election, with small caps viewed as beneficiaries from deregulation, lower tax rates and even tariffs since the group has fewer multinationals than large cap stocks.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/03/small-cap-benchmark-russell-2000-becomes-first-major-us-stock-measure-to-enter-bear-market.html

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Note this as FYI from the excerpt -



On Dec. 4, 2024 - The Dow closes above 45,000 for the first time. It may be time to rethink what makes a milestone.



So the intra-day low so far today (40,621) had the Dow a bit more than 100 points above a correction (which would need to be 40,513 or below).