The COVID-19 crash became the fastest U.S. stock-market bear-market decline in 2020.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average entered a bear market on 11 March 2020, after falling at least 20% from its February record close. The S&P 500 reached bear-market territory on 12 March. The sell-off reflected the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic, economic shutdowns, travel restrictions and uncertainty about corporate earnings and public health.
The decline was exceptionally rapid: major U.S. indexes moved from record highs to bear-market territory in roughly a month. Massive fiscal measures, central-bank support and progress toward vaccines later helped markets recover, although economic damage and unequal effects continued.
The 2020 crash is sometimes described as the “Coronavirus Crash.” It was not a single trading-day collapse like Black Monday in 1987. Instead, it was a sudden global market decline embedded in a wider recession caused by the pandemic.