The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined about 45% from its 1973 peak to its 1974 trough during the 1973–1974 stock-market crash.
The downturn began after the Dow reached a record close in January 1973. It fell through a period marked by high inflation, recession, monetary tightening, and energy disruption. The October 1973 oil embargo by Arab members of OPEC intensified economic pressure in many countries.
The bear market reached its low in December 1974. The decline was especially damaging because it followed the long postwar expansion and coincided with the end of the Bretton Woods monetary system. The United States also experienced rising unemployment and persistent inflation, a combination later called stagflation.
The exact percentage varies slightly depending on whether researchers use closing prices, intraday values, and selected peak and trough dates. The commonly cited Dow decline is approximately 45%, not the much larger fall associated with the 1929 crash.