The sudden May 6, 2010 U.S. market plunge and recovery within minutes was called the Flash Crash. During the afternoon of May 6, major U.S. equity indexes dropped sharply and then recovered much of the decline before the session ended.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 1,000 points, or nearly 9%, at its session low. Individual securities experienced extreme and temporary price movements, with some trades occurring at cents or thousands of dollars. The event differed from a conventional bear market because its most dramatic movements happened in a very short period.
A joint report by U.S. regulators attributed the event to a large automated sell order in futures combined with stressed market conditions and high-frequency trading activity. Later investigations and prosecutions examined spoofing and other market-manipulation conduct. The crash prompted changes to circuit breakers, trading controls and market surveillance in the United States.