On what date did the 1987 Black Monday crash hit global stock markets?

The 1987 Black Monday crash hit global stock markets on October 19, 1987. On that Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6%, its largest one-day percentage decline in history.

The selling spread rapidly across international markets. Hong Kong fell first because of the time-zone sequence, followed by markets in Europe and North America. Concerns about overvaluation, trade tensions, rising interest rates, and automated portfolio strategies contributed to the panic, although no single cause fully explains the event.

Black Monday is often confused with the 1929 market collapse because both became famous through memorable weekday names. They were different episodes separated by nearly six decades. Unlike the 1929 crash, the 1987 plunge did not lead to a comparable decade-long depression in the United States.

Regulators responded with structural reforms, including market-wide circuit breakers designed to pause trading during extreme declines. The crash also intensified debate about computerized trading and portfolio insurance, strategies that could reinforce selling when prices fell quickly.