What was the October 1989 U.S. stock-market plunge called after the United Airlines buyout failed?

The October 1989 U.S. stock-market plunge after a failed United Airlines buyout was called the Friday the 13th mini-crash.

On Friday, October 13, 1989, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 190.58 points, or about 6.9%. The immediate catalyst was the collapse of a leveraged buyout proposal for United Airlines. Investors also worried about junk bonds and the financial structure supporting corporate takeovers, so the failed deal quickly affected broader market confidence.

The decline was much smaller and shorter-lived than the 1987 Black Monday crash, which had occurred two years earlier. The nickname “Friday the 13th mini-crash” distinguishes the episode from other market drops associated with Friday the 13th. It is sometimes overlooked because it did not produce a prolonged bear market, but its connection to leveraged buyouts and high-yield debt makes it an important late-1980s financial event.