The 1962 U.S. stock-market decline during the Cuban Missile Crisis era was called the Kennedy Slide.
The Kennedy Slide was a sharp fall in U.S. share prices from late 1961 into June 1962. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a high in December 1961 and then declined about 27% by June 1962. The episode occurred during President John F. Kennedy’s administration.
Concerns included slowing economic growth, uncertainty about corporate profits, inflation worries, and tensions surrounding the Cold War. The crisis was not simply a reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis, which occurred in October 1962, after the market’s main decline had already taken place.
The Kennedy Slide is also known as the Flash Crash of 1962 in some accounts. It is distinct from the 1963 assassination-related market closure and from the much larger crashes of 1929 and 1987.