Wall Street shrinks into bear market

The S&P 500 slipped to 21 percent below its record high in January and stayed there until markets closed Monday. This tumble marked the beginning of what many consider a “bear market.” Inflation, rising interest rates, the war in Ukraine, and slowdowns in the Chinese economy have rattled investors. The S&P 500 narrowly avoided a bear market last month.

Why is it called a “bear market?” The term refers to bears’ hibernation habits — an apt analogy for a retreating market, said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. It occurs when an individual stock or an index such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 20 percent or more from a recent high for a sustained amount of time. The Nasdaq Composite Index of tech stocks is also in a bear market.

Dig Deeper: Listen to Nick Eicher’s conversation with David Bahnsen on The World and Everything in It podcast about bear markets.