What name is commonly given to the worldwide stock-market decline that followed the 1973 oil crisis?

The worldwide stock-market decline that followed the 1973 oil crisis is commonly called the 1973–74 stock market crash.

The downturn began after the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, when Arab members of OPEC imposed an oil embargo on countries supporting Israel. Oil prices surged, inflation accelerated, and economic growth weakened. These pressures combined with monetary tightening and investor concern about corporate profits.

US and European equities fell heavily. In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined from its January 1973 peak to a low in December 1974. Britain’s market also suffered a major fall, while the crisis contributed to stagflation across much of the industrialized world.

The crash is sometimes treated as a single event, but it was a prolonged bear market lasting roughly two years. It also overlapped with the Watergate crisis and the 1973–75 recession, making its causes broader than oil prices alone.