1、Congressional Research Service The Library of CongressCRS Report for CongressReceived through the CRS WebOrder Code RS21011September 14, 2001The Stock Markets Responseto Dramatic Historical EventsMark JicklingSpecialist in Public FinanceGovernment and Finance DivisionSummaryThe events of September 1
2、1, 2001 have caused speculation that the U.S. stockmarket may crash when trading resumes. History, however, suggests that there is nouniform pattern in which bad news is followed by a stock market plunge. This reportpresents data on the stock market response to four episodes: Pearl Harbor, the Kenne
3、dyassassination, the October 1987 stock market crash, and the Asian financial crisis of1997. There is, of course, no guarantee that the market will behave now or in the futureas it did then.Following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11,2001, there was much speculat
4、ion that U.S. stock prices would plunge when the marketsreopened. The stock market is of course highly unpredictable, but the historical recordsuggests that a price drop need not occur, and that, if it does, the effect may be short-lived.The charts on the following pages illustrate the behavior of t
