Black Thursday describes the 24 October 1929 collapse in U.S. share prices that helped begin the Wall Street Crash.
On that Thursday, panic selling produced extremely heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange. A group of major bankers attempted to restore confidence by buying leading shares, and prices temporarily stabilized before falling again in the following week.
Black Thursday was not the single largest percentage loss of the entire 1929 episode. Black Monday and Black Tuesday, on 28 and 29 October, brought further severe declines, and the market continued weakening afterward. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eventually reached its 1929 peak-to-trough low in July 1932.
The crash did not by itself cause the Great Depression, which also involved banking failures, monetary contraction, debt problems, and falling demand. Nevertheless, the collapse damaged confidence and became one of the depression’s defining financial events.