The 2010 U.S. market plunge in which the Dow briefly lost nearly 1,000 points is called the Flash Crash.
On 6 May 2010, major U.S. stock indexes dropped rapidly and then recovered much of the loss within minutes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 1,000 points, roughly 9 percent, before ending the session down 3.2 percent.
Investigations found that automated trading, market fragmentation, and a large sell order contributed to the episode. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission later described how selling pressure moved through interconnected markets and triggered further algorithmic responses.
The Flash Crash differs from a conventional bear market, which develops over a longer period. It also differs from Black Monday in 1987, when markets suffered a huge one-day decline but did not recover most of it within minutes. The event led to new safeguards, including circuit breakers designed to pause trading during extreme price movements.