The Dow Is in a Bear Market, What Does That Mean?

A street sign on Wall Street outside the New York Stock Exchange, on Sept. 18, 2007. Brendan McDermid/Reuters

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the oldest of Wall Street’s three main stock indexes, dropped 1.1 percent on Monday, extending the decline from its January peak to more than 20 percent, meeting a common definition for a bear market.

Worries that the Federal Reserve’s war against decades-high inflation is pushing the U.S. economy into a downturn have sent the U.S. stock market tumbling in 2022.