The 2010 Flash Crash erased about 998.5 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average at its deepest moment.
On May 6, 2010, U.S. stock markets experienced a sudden and extremely rapid decline. The Dow fell about 1,000 points, or roughly 9 percent, within minutes before recovering much of the loss. The index ended the session down 347 points, showing how dramatically the intraday plunge reversed.
Investigations linked the event to a combination of market conditions, automated trading, high-frequency trading activity, and a large sell order in E-mini S&P 500 futures. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission concluded that the interaction of these factors worsened the move.
The crash did not result from a single ordinary news announcement. It led to new safeguards, including circuit breakers designed to pause trading during extreme, rapid price movements.