This is what I find: If the cause of the market movement is from tech company(ies), Nasdaq will move the most and Dow Jones will move the least. When the cause is non-tech-based company(ies), Dow Jones will move the most and Nasdaq will move the least. SP 500 will always move somewhere in between. It's really due to the makeup of the three indices with Nasdaq having the highest % of tech companies and Dow Jones having the highest % of non-tech companies and S&P 500 being somewhere in the middle with a slightly higher proportion of it being made up of tech. companies.