Market history 1942 to 1946
The wartime rally
The S&P 500 through the episode, from its peak to its low and back to the peak, and what happened.
S&P 500, daily closeFall, peak to lowThe peak's level
S&P 500 daily close, price only (the S&P 90 before March 1957). Yahoo Finance, ^GSPC, to 30 Oct 2026.
What happened
From the spring of 1942 the index rose steadily as the course of the war turned. Prices and interest rates were held down by controls and the Fed's cap on Treasury yields, while war production lifted profits. By 1946 the market had more than doubled from its low.
Play it
The Trading Simulator replays two years of the S&P 500 from May 1942, day by day: stay invested or move to cash, and finish ahead of the index if you can. The game counts dividends, so its figures differ from the price figures here.
On Andra Markets
How the figures are measured
From the S&P 500's daily closes, price only: dividends are not included. An episode's fall is the largest drop from a close to a later close within its months, from the highest close before the low. Where an episode's text measures from a peak in the episode before or to a low in the episode after, the figures do too: the Great Depression from the 1929 peak, Sputnik and the 1957 recession from the 1956 high, and the Volcker squeeze to the low of August 1982. Months are calendar months, rounded. Back at the peak is the first close at or above the peak's close.
The text of each episode is the one the Trading Simulator shows at the end of a game. For information only. Not investment advice.