The day after elections — stock market trivia

A bit of election trivia from Reuters today, which tracked how the stock market fared the day after presidential elections from 1896 through 2008.

At its close today, the U.S. stock market had its largest drop on record on the day after a presidential election. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 5.05 percent today after Sen. Barack Obama became President-Elect. The second largest fall after an election — 4.51 percent — occurred in 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt was elected to his first term. In third place was the day after the election of Harry Truman — which showed a 3.85 percent drop.

The largest increases after an election occurred in 1896 and 1900 with William McKinley’s election and re-election.

It’s interesting to note that the day after the George W. Bush and Al Gore election contest, when no winner was yet named, the market dropped by only 0.41 percent.

Not sure what these ups and downs prove, other than the market has its ups and downs.