The 2010 Flash Crash was the market event in which U.S. stocks plunged and recovered within minutes on May 6, 2010.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped about 1,000 points, or roughly 9%, during the session before recovering much of the decline. Some individual securities experienced exceptionally extreme and short-lived price movements.
Investigations linked the episode to a combination of market stress, automated trading, and a large sell order, although the event involved several interacting mechanisms rather than one simple cause. The episode prompted exchanges and regulators to introduce or strengthen safeguards, including circuit breakers and rules addressing clearly erroneous trades. It is distinct from a conventional bear market: the defining feature was the extraordinary speed of the fall and partial rebound.