The 19 October 1987 worldwide stock-market crash is known as Black Monday. The name refers to the Monday on which markets plunged across several financial centers, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 22.6%.
The sell-off was not confined to the United States. Hong Kong fell first, European markets followed, and the shock reached North America. Australia and other markets also recorded severe losses, making the episode a genuinely international crash.
Researchers have identified several contributing factors, including stretched valuations, monetary concerns, trade disputes, and automated trading strategies. The exact balance among these causes remains debated, but the scale of synchronized selling is not disputed.
“Black Tuesday” is associated with 29 October 1929, while “Black Thursday” refers to 24 October 1929. Those labels belong to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, so using them for the 1987 event confuses separate historical crashes.