The global financial crisis reached its broad stock-market low in 2009 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, intensifying a crisis that had begun in the U.S. housing and credit markets. Banks and investors faced losses linked to mortgage-related securities, while frozen lending threatened businesses and the wider economy. Major equity indexes continued falling after the Lehman failure.
The S&P 500 reached its closing low of 676.53 on March 9, 2009. From its October 2007 closing peak, the index had lost more than half its value. Governments and central banks responded with emergency lending, bank rescues, fiscal stimulus, and exceptionally low interest rates.
The crisis is sometimes described as the 2008 crash because its most dramatic events occurred that year. However, the widely cited U.S. stock-market trough came in 2009, and markets then began a prolonged recovery.