SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 17, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- On the first trading day for the United States securities markets since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the U.S., the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index (TMW), the broadest measure of the United States equities market, was down 5.1 percent or 514 today to close at 9,590.69 reflecting a loss of nearly $600 billion in overall value of the equities market, according to Wilshire Associates Incorporated, a leader in providing investment management, investment consulting and investment analytic services.
This is the lowest close for the Wilshire 5000 since October 16, 1998, when it closed at 9536.53. Based on Wilshire 5000 records going back to December 1979, today's loss is the fifth highest in terms of points lost and the eighth highest in percentage decline.
Since the all-time closing high of 14,751.64 on March 24, 2000, the Wilshire 5000 has dropped 35 percent reflecting a loss to investors in U.S. stocks of more than $5.9 trillion. Year-to-date, approximately $3 trillion in value in U.S. equities has disappeared.
"Even before last Tuesday's tragic terrorist attacks against the United States segments of the market were trending downward," said Tom Stevens, senior managing direct of Wilshire Associates. "Today's sell-off wasn't surprising -- especially among airline and insurance stocks. We expect to see some rebound when investors decide that some stocks are bargains at their current prices and the full weight of the Federal Reserve dropping the interest rate another 50 basis points is realized," he added.
The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index is the only index that provides the magnitude in dollars of what is lost or gained in the U.S. equity markets. Every one-point change in the Wilshire 5000 represents approximately $1.17 billion. It measures the performance of all U.S. headquartered equity securities with readily available price data. More than 6,500 capitalization weighted security returns are used to adjust the index. It is the only such broad-based indicator of the value of U.S. equities.
The Wilshire 5000, which is cited frequently by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan as the index he uses to measure the equities market, was developed 27 years ago by Dennis Tito, the founder and chairman of Wilshire and a former scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index is available real-time via major market data vendors, including S&P Comstock, Bloomberg, Reuters and Bridge. The index will be updated in 15-second intervals. Real-time figures are also available free of charge at the Wilshire Web site at www.wilshire.com.
Wilshire Associates is a leader in providing investment management, investment consulting and investment technology services to a wide variety of institutional and high net worth investors worldwide. Wilshire has provided asset management, consulting and portfolio analytics to more than 400 institutional clients with assets of $1 trillion, including 20 of the largest Fortune 500 corporations. It has provided private equity services since 1984 and has advised clients in committing approximately $1.5 billion to private investments in the past ten years.