Economic Impact of September 11th

September 11, 2001 was a day that Americans and the world for that matter will not soon forget. When two planes went into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and two others went into the Pentagon and a small town in Pennsylvania, the world was rocked. Everyone in the United States felt very vulnerable and unsafe from attacks that might follow. As a result, confidence in the CIA, FBI, and the airlines were shaken. People were scared to fly after what had happened.
The events that unfolded on September 11th and the days that followed also profoundly effected the stock market. It is the purpose of this paper is to examine what happened to both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ after September 11th and how it is similar to events such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the Gulf War in terms of how the stock market experienced a blow and bounced back after a while.
The stock market remained closed from September 11th until September 17th, almost a week after the attacks. When the markets re-opened after a weeklong absence, people were uncertain about what the numbers would be at the end of the day. Looking back throughout history, after a traumatic event such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the Gulf War, the markets tended to go down at first but after a few months, they would rebound. When the markets closed on September 17th, the numbers were very bleak. “The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 685 points, its biggest point drop in history, ending the day at 8,921. The NASDAQ was also down 116 points, closing at 1,580” (Stock Markets Reopen 1). These numbers also represented the major indexes lowest levels in about three years.
Along with the low stock index numbers of September 17th, the airline industry and travel stocks were also rocked. One of several airlines announcing layoffs, US Airways said that they would be terminating 11,000 jobs. These heavy losses were contributed to airlines “being grounded last week [week of September 11th], plus passengers have been apprehensive to fly, in the wake of the hijackings” (Stock Markets Reopen 1).
Americans also became concerned about the gas supply and the possibility of being unable to obtain gas. It was reported that drivers in America were lined up out in the streets for fear of not being able to get gas for their automobiles.