The sudden 2010 U.S. market plunge that erased nearly 1,000 Dow points is called the 2010 Flash Crash.
On May 6, 2010, major U.S. stock indexes dropped rapidly before recovering much of the loss. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 1,000 points, or roughly 9%, within minutes, while many individual securities briefly traded at extraordinarily low prices.
Investigations found that automated trading and market conditions played major roles. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission concluded that a large automated sale of E-mini S&P 500 futures helped interact with existing stresses and high-frequency trading activity.
The event led to new safeguards, including circuit breakers designed to pause trading during extreme moves. It is distinct from the 1987 Black Monday crash because the 2010 event largely reversed within the same session.