The 2010 Flash Crash was the event in which U.S. stocks briefly plunged nearly 1,000 Dow points within minutes.
On May 6, 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 1,000 points, or roughly 9%, before recovering much of the loss. Many individual securities experienced extreme and short-lived price movements, including trades at one cent or as high as $100,000.
Investigations concluded that automated trading and deteriorating market liquidity played major roles. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission later said that a large futures order by trader Navinder Singh Sarao contributed to the rapid decline, though the event involved broader market mechanisms.
The Flash Crash differed from a traditional prolonged bear market: the sharpest fall and much of the rebound happened in the same trading session. It helped prompt new safeguards, including circuit breakers and tighter market surveillance.