The Kennedy Slide was the 1962 U.S. stock-market sell-off linked to Cold War tensions and economic uncertainty.
The decline ran from late 1961 into June 1962, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling about 26.5% from its high. The market’s weakness reflected concerns about slowing growth, corporate profits, inflation, and the international political environment, including the Cold War.
The period is associated with President John F. Kennedy, but the nickname does not mean that Kennedy personally caused the crash. His administration’s confrontation with the steel industry in April 1962 intensified investor anxiety after major steel companies raised prices and then reversed the increases under government pressure.
The episode is also called the Crash of 1962. It was a severe bear market rather than a single-day collapse like Black Monday in 1987. The Dow reached its low on June 26, 1962, before recovering later in the decade.