Ronald Reagan's stock market drop -- and fascinating DJIA history

Did you know that the DJIA dropped significantly immediately after Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, and didn't return to its Inauguration Day level for twenty months?!!

When I heard that a little while ago on CNN, I thought it might be interesting to dig a bit deeper into the relationship of the Inauguration Day Dow to the end-of-term Dow. (The Dow isn't the way most stock analysts judge market health -- they more normally refer to the S & P -- but it is the popular and familiar metric out here among us ordinary folk.)

These are the most valuable pages I found:

Here is the single most informative guide to DJIA activity over the years: The niftiest, most information-rich graph -- with milestones, presidential terms, sidebar articles -- intelligently designed interactivity

Greatest gains and losses, in point and percentage terms

Graph of Dow and presidential terms

It should come as no surprise that Republican presidents aren't the best stewards!