Stock market: the end of a mirage? (2002)

The research analyses the stock market performance in the period from July 2000 to July 2002, which is certainly one of the worst recorded by the Italian stock market. In fact, even the New Market of the Milan Stock Exchange recorded a resounding fall and the poor performance of the stock exchanges was also reflected in Italian mutual funds.
The New York Stock Exchange experienced a fall of massive proportions. In the United States, although there had already been warning signs of a slowdown in 2000 and early 2001, the crisis only fully manifested itself after 11 September, dragging most stocks down violently. The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers was one of the causes of the crisis that affected all the main financial markets, but it should not be forgotten that it had already begun to appear the year before. The causes of the weakness of the stock markets are undoubted to be found both in the financial sector and in the real economy. The euphoria of the turn of the millennium had certainly caused stocks to rise above what could be sustainable, provoking an opposite reaction. However, the strictly financial causes did not have much influence and are certainly not sufficient to explain the collapse of all the world’s stock markets.