What was the 1962 U.S. stock-market sell-off, partly linked to Cold War tensions, called?

The 1962 U.S. stock-market sell-off, partly linked to Cold War tensions, was called the Kennedy Slide of 1962.

The decline ran from December 1961 to June 1962 and became one of the sharpest U.S. market falls since the 1929 crash. The Standard and Poor’s 500 index dropped about 22.5% from its high to its low. Investors faced concerns about slowing growth, corporate earnings, interest rates, and international confrontation.

The name refers to President John F. Kennedy’s administration, not to a single presidential decision that caused the crash. The crisis atmosphere surrounding the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis formed part of the period’s Cold War background, but market forces were broader than geopolitics alone.

The decline ended after the market low in June 1962. It is sometimes confused with the 1963 “Kennedy rally,” which followed the president’s assassination and was a separate market episode. The Kennedy Slide remains a useful example of how valuation and economic worries can combine with political uncertainty.