The S&P 500 is on track for its worst month since 2022. https://t.co/zWbHsb4Mfw
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Monthly candlestick chart of the S&P 500 (Mar 2025) that highlights the sharp March decline (roughly a 5–6% monthly drop) and the index retreat to levels not seen since 2022 — directly illustrating the claim that the S&P 500 was on track for its worst month since 2022. ([barchart-news-media-prod.aws.barchart.com](https://barchart-news-media-prod.aws.barchart.com/EXCLSV/9e0d8367744e2faaa7a145d2a77101cc/tde4frl4zqbjje79.png))
Source: Barchart
Research Brief
What our analysis found
The S&P 500 closed out March 2025 with a price return of approximately −5.75%, marking a punishing end to a quarter that saw the broad index lose about 4.6% in total. The selloff accelerated after the index peaked around February 19, 2025, and by March 13 the S&P had officially entered correction territory, falling more than 10% from its high. Only 2 of 11 sectors posted gains during March, with energy leading at +3.75% while consumer discretionary plunged −9.02%. Estimates of cumulative market-capitalization losses during the February-to-March window ranged from roughly $4 trillion to $5.3 trillion, depending on the source and measurement period.
Multiple news outlets characterized the month as the S&P 500's worst since 2022, driven largely by renewed tariff fears and a tech-led rout following late-March policy signals from the Trump administration. The turbulence did not end with the calendar page: President Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" tariff announcements triggered another wave of sharp selling, and policy uncertainty persisted until a federal court temporarily blocked the tariff action in late May 2025. The episode underscored how rapidly trade-policy headlines could translate into broad market stress.
Fact Check
Evidence from both sides
Supporting Evidence
Reuters and major wire services confirmed the scale of the decline
Reuters coverage republished widely around March 31, 2025, reported that both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their biggest monthly percentage drops since December 2022, aligning with the tweet's characterization.
The Guardian's live market feed corroborated the claim
Quoting Reuters data on March 31, 2025, the Guardian reported the S&P fell "about 5.7% in March, its largest monthly drop since December 2022."
Bloomberg and financial outlets linked the drop to tariff and tech fears
Bloomberg coverage dated March 31, 2025, described the roughly −5.6% monthly decline as a notably large fall in the post-2022 era, driven by trade-war anxiety and a selloff in mega-cap technology stocks.
Contradicting Evidence
Official S&P Dow Jones Indices data points to September 2022, not December 2022
The S&P DJI Market Attributes report for March 2025 states the month was the index's worst since September 2022, when the S&P fell −9.34%. That makes the precise framing "worst since December 2022" technically inaccurate by the index provider's own records.
December 2022's decline was actually larger than March 2025's
Historical data show the S&P 500 fell approximately −6.06% in December 2022, which exceeds March 2025's −5.75% drop. Because December 2022 was a bigger monthly loss, March 2025 cannot be the worst month "since" that date — it did not surpass it.
Headline discrepancies stem from inconsistent benchmarks across outlets
Different reporters used varying measures — price return versus total return, S&P 500 versus Nasdaq, and different rounding conventions — which led some to write "worst since December 2022" and others "worst since September 2022." The official S&P data support the September 2022 comparison, suggesting the widely circulated December 2022 framing was imprecise.
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