What was the main trigger named for the global stock sell-off known as the 1973–1974 crash?

The main trigger associated with the global 1973–1974 stock-market crash was the 1973 oil crisis.

After the Yom Kippur War, Arab members of OAPEC announced an oil embargo against countries supporting Israel. Oil prices surged, creating inflationary pressure and worsening economic uncertainty in many industrial economies.

The stock-market decline also reflected recession, high interest rates, weak corporate earnings, and the breakdown of the postwar Bretton Woods monetary system. In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell sharply from its January 1973 peak to its December 1974 low.

The crash is sometimes reduced to the oil embargo alone, but the market decline had several interacting causes. It formed part of the broader stagflation era, when economies faced both slow growth and high inflation.