It has been three years since the U.S. stock market hit its COVID-19 bottom as the global economy suddenly shut down at the start of the pandemic in early 2020. The S&P 500
SPX,
+0.30%
has risen nearly 76% from its closing low of 2237.40 reached on March 23, 2020, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.23%
is up 72.3% from its low of 18591.93 hit on the same day and the Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+1.01%
has advanced over 70%, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Infections caused by COVID-19 began to spread in early 2020, and panic triggered by the economic uncertainty led to a drop in the stock market that started in late February. On Feb. 24, the Dow industrial average slumped more than 1,000 points, its third-worst daily point drop in history. The selloff accelerated in mid-March, with the Dow entering bear-market territory on March 10, down more than 20% from the record close set in the previous month. Meanwhile, the large-cap index S&P 500 dropped nearly 3 …