Remember March 13, 2020? That was absolutely brutal for stock markets. U.S. stocks had just entered bear territory and the panic was real. Everyone was freaking out about the coronavirus situation and what it meant for corporate earnings and supply chains. Even the Fed pumping trillions into the system couldn't calm things down.

That day the three major indexes all closed deep in the red. The Dow Jones dropped to 21,200.62 after losing 10%, the S&P 500 fell to 2,480.64 with a 9.5% decline, and the Nasdaq hit 7,201.80 down 9.4%. What made it even worse was that both the Dow and S&P 500 were having their worst day since the Black Monday crash back in October 1987. The fear index was off the charts too - VIX closed at 68.19. On the NYSE, you had way more losers than winners, something like a 23.77-to-1 ratio.

The Fed's response was to announce they'd pump $1.5 trillion into the financial system. The NY Fed said they'd inject at least that amount by March 13 itself, offering $500 billion in three-month repo operations. They were also tweaking their Treasury purchase program because the market disruptions were pretty extreme.

Politically things were messy too. Trump and the top Republicans weren't backing the House Democrats' coronavirus aid bill. They were more focused on a payroll tax cut running through the end of 2020, while Democrats wanted paid sick leave, expanded unemployment insurance, and free testing.

On the economic data side, producer prices had just fallen 0.6% in February - the biggest drop in five years. Initial jobless claims for the week ending March 7 came in at 211,000. Everything pointed to the economy starting to feel the real impact of what was happening. That March 13, 2020 moment really was a turning point where everyone realized this wasn't just a market blip.