The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 777.68 points on September 29, 2008, during the global stock-market crash.
The record point decline occurred after the U.S. House of Representatives rejected an initial version of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, commonly associated with the proposed $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Investors feared that the worsening credit crisis would become even more difficult to contain.
The 777.68-point drop was the largest single-day point decline for the Dow at that time. Point losses and percentage losses are different measures: a large point fall can represent a smaller percentage move when an index is at a higher level.
The legislation was later revised and enacted. Financial markets remained highly unstable for months, and the crisis spread through banks, housing finance, credit markets, and economies around the world. The Dow eventually reached its crisis-era closing low in March 2009.