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 As the new decade and millennium got under way, the roaring bull market of the late 1990s seemed very much intact and unstoppable. The so-called Y2k bug proved to be a gnat, optimism was high and bullish sentiment was rampant. Even as some commentators urged an alternative approach, investors' ardor was particularly heavy for technology and Internet stocks, as chronicled in TheStreet.com's Mad Dash to Nasdaq series. In hindsight, the euphoria reached a crescendo in the reaction to the stunning AOL-Time Warner merger announcement on Jan. 10, 2000. Or as TheStreet.com called it: The Megadeal.
But maybe AOL's Steve Case knew he had to use his Internet currency before it was too late. The "irrational exuberance" of the 1990s would soon give way to the harsh reality of the bursting of the tech stock bubble, which peaked in March 2000, shortly after the Nasdaq hit 5000 for the first time.
The Nasdaq quickly fell more than 15% from its peak but optimism for a tech-stock rebound was high come early April 2000. Then, the Justice Department issued its historic antitrust decision against Microsoft.
Hope and faith in technology's prowess (and a Nasdaq bounce) took another setback in May, when the I Love You virus disrupted Internet service and infested PCs all over the world.
When all was said and done, 2000 would prove to be the worst year in the history of the Nasdaq, which shed a whopping 39.3%. For 2000, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6.2%, at the time its worst year since 1981. The S&P 500 shed 10.1%, its worst annual performance since 1977 -- again to that point.
Even as Peter Eavis made the then unthinkable prediction -- Nasdaq 1500, Here We Come -- the end of 2000 was characterized by hopes for a tech-led stock comeback. Such hopes were dashed on the first trading day of 2001, when the Nasdaq plummeted 7.2%.
But hopes for a "bottom" were refueled on Jan. 3 by a surprise 50-basis-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve, which spurred tremendous moves in the major averages and heated debate in the pages of TheStreet.com's sister site RealMoney.com.
The Fed would continue to ease through the spring and summer of 2001, as it sought to undo its tightening campaign of 1999-2000. But the bursting of the tech stock bubble and corresponding evaporation of business capital spending were too much for even Alan Greenspan & Co. to overcome.
Stocks continued their harrowing decline as the summer of 2001 came to an end. Financial journalists often use terms such as "crash" and "carnage" and "panic" to describe such market action. But the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 demonstrated in the cruelest manner just how frivolous such usage was and is.
With its main office just blocks from Ground Zero, TheStreet.com was physically, emotionally and directly effected by those terrible events, most dramatically by the loss of longtime contributor Bill Meehan.
Not surprisingly, major averages tumbled when trading reopened on Sept. 17 and the first week of trading after the terror events was one of the worst in market history. But a combination of monetary and fiscal stimuli, plus the zero interest-rate offerings of the automakers helped reinvigorate the U.S. economy and financial markets in the fourth quarter of 2001.
Still, Enron's bankruptcy filing in early December was a fitting ending to a year that was truly annus horribilis.
Peter Eavis once again distinguished himself by being among the first reporters to question Enron's business model and Wall Street's love affair with the now infamous energy trader. In the wake of Enron's fall, Eavis' coverage was compiled in a feature called How Enron Came Undone.
Enron would come to symbolize the excesses of 1990's corporate America and its Wall Street bankers. The Enron scandal would provide continued fodder for the staff in 2002 as would the subsequent accounting scandal at WorldCom in the summer of 2002, which put the already beleaguered telecom sector in a harsh spotlight.
Another corporate titan to fall from grace in 2002 was Tyco, which started the year on its heels and under critical examination by Herb Greenberg.
Tyco ended 2002 humbled and still under a cloud while the year proved to be another desultory one for most investors as the Dow ended the year with a loss of 16.7% -- its worst performance in a quarter century. The Nasdaq fell 31.5% for the year while the S&P tumbled 23.4%. All three major averages posted their third consecutive losing year in 2002, something that hadn't happened since 1939-1941.
But unbeknown to most investors, a rally that started shortly after first-year commemoration of 9/11 would prove to be the start, albeit fitful, of a bull market advance that continues to the present day.
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