Throwback to April 9th, 2025 the single largest daily point gain and the 9th largest single day percentage gain in S&P 500 history 🟢 Here's what the 🇺🇸 stock market looked like on that day https://t.co/lw50lO5lOe
Bar chart of the top 10 largest close-to-close percentage gains for the S&P 500 from Jan 4, 1930 through April 9, 2025; April 9, 2025 appears among the largest single-day percentage gains, visually illustrating how exceptional that day’s rally was compared with historical big moves.
Source: Market Index History
Research Brief
What our analysis found
On April 9, 2025, the S&P 500 surged +474.13 points to close at 5,456.90, a gain of +9.52%. The rally was triggered by President Donald Trump's announcement that most reciprocal tariffs would be paused for 90 days, sending markets soaring in one of the most dramatic single-day recoveries in Wall Street history. The move ranks as the single largest daily point gain ever recorded for the S&P 500 and places among the top 10 largest single-day percentage gains in the index's history, depending on how ties and historical data are tallied.
The rally was not confined to the S&P 500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped approximately 2,962.86 points (+7.9%), while the Nasdaq Composite rocketed +12.2%, gaining roughly 1,857.06 points. April 9 also set a record for intraday volatility, with an intraday point swing of 532.91 points on the S&P 500, the largest ever recorded. Bloomberg described it as the S&P's biggest one-day gain since 2008, and Morgan Stanley's market desk documented the extraordinary breadth of the advance.
In the weeks that followed, the tariff story continued to evolve. By May 12, 2025, reports emerged that the U.S. and China had reached a deal to roll back most of the recently imposed tariffs, extending the market narrative that began with the April 9 pause announcement. Analysts have cautioned, however, that record point gains are partly a mechanical artifact of higher index levels and are less historically meaningful than percentage-based comparisons.
Fact Check
Evidence from both sides
Supporting Evidence
Confirmed largest-ever daily point gain
Wikipedia's comprehensive list of largest daily changes in the S&P 500 Index records April 9, 2025 at the top of the point-gain table with a +474.13-point move, corroborating the tweet's central claim.
Near-record percentage gain verified
The +9.52% advance is listed among the largest single-day percentage gains in S&P 500 history, appearing as a tie for the 8th-largest on the Wikipedia historical table, consistent with the tweet's claim that it was the "9th largest" depending on tie-handling methodology.
Associated Press day-of reporting
AP's market coverage confirmed the S&P 500 "rocketed higher by 474.13 points to 5,456.90" and described it as "one of their best days in history," directly supporting both the point and percentage claims.
Bloomberg and Morgan Stanley corroboration
Bloomberg described the session as the S&P's biggest one-day gain since 2008, while Morgan Stanley's market note recorded the same +9.5% / +474.13-point figures, providing institutional-level confirmation of the data.
Tariff-pause catalyst widely documented
Multiple outlets including AP and Bloomberg explicitly link the rally to President Trump's announcement of a 90-day pause on most reciprocal tariffs, establishing the well-documented cause of the historic move.
Contradicting Evidence
Percentage ranking may be 8th, not 9th
The tweet describes the move as the "9th largest single day percentage gain," but the most commonly referenced historical table on Wikipedia shows +9.52% tied for the 8th-largest percentage gain. The discrepancy stems from how ties are counted and which historical dataset or start date is used, making the exact ordinal ranking a matter of methodology rather than a clear-cut fact.
Point-gain records are mechanically inflated at higher index levels
Analysts at Bloomberg and other outlets have cautioned that absolute point-gain records are less meaningful for historical comparison because a higher base index level in 2025 naturally produces larger point swings for the same percentage move. A +9.52% gain in 1933, when the index was far lower, would register as a tiny point change by comparison, making the "largest point gain ever" claim technically true but potentially misleading without context.
Rumor-driven volatility preceded the official announcement
AP reported that a "bogus report" about a tariff pause briefly lifted markets earlier in the week before the White House denied it, meaning some of the volatility around April 9 was driven by rumors and misinformation, complicating the clean narrative that a single announcement caused the historic rally.
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