The 2010 U.S. market plunge after the Dow lost nearly 1,000 points within minutes was called the 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, approximately 9%, during the session. Many individual securities experienced unusually extreme and temporary price movements.
Investigations focused on automated trading, market liquidity, and a large sell order in E-mini S&P 500 futures. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission later described how trading activity and limited liquidity interacted to accelerate the fall.
The event led exchanges and regulators to strengthen safeguards, including circuit breakers and procedures for reviewing clearly erroneous trades. It is called a flash crash because of its extraordinary speed, not because it was the largest percentage market decline in history.