What was the name of the 1973–1974 collapse in U.S. stock prices after the end of the postwar boom?

The 1973–1974 stock market crash was the major collapse in U.S. and other stock prices during the early 1970s.

The downturn followed the breakdown of the postwar economic expansion, rising inflation, monetary tightening, and the 1973 oil crisis. The Yom Kippur War led Arab oil-producing states to impose an embargo on some countries, and oil prices rose sharply. These pressures weakened corporate profits and economic growth.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell from its January 1973 high to a low in December 1974, losing roughly 45% of its value. In the United Kingdom, the FT 30 index fell even more dramatically. The episode coincided with the 1973–1975 recession and a period of stagflation.

The crash is sometimes reduced to an “oil shock,” but inflation, interest rates, political uncertainty, and weak earnings also mattered. It was a prolonged bear market rather than a single-day panic like Black Monday in 1987.