The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a low closing level of 41.22 during the Great Depression-era market crash. It recorded that low on July 8, 1932, nearly three years after the dramatic selling days of October 1929.
The 1929 crash is often described through Black Thursday, Black Monday, and Black Tuesday, but the market’s full decline continued long after those dates. The Dow’s peak was 381.17 on September 3, 1929, so the 1932 low represented a fall of almost 89% from that peak. Bank failures, deflation, falling production, and unemployment deepened the economic crisis.
The 1932 low is not the same as the lowest point reached during the 1929 trading days. Nor does it mean every share lost exactly the same amount; the Dow is a price-weighted index of selected companies. The index eventually recovered, but it did not regain its 1929 peak until 1954.