The 1962 U.S. stock-market sell-off is known as the Kennedy Slide.
The Kennedy Slide occurred in the spring of 1962 and was one of the sharpest U.S. market declines since the 1929 crash. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell for several weeks, with the decline associated with concerns about slowing economic growth, corporate earnings, inflation, and tensions between the administration of President John F. Kennedy and American business leaders.
A major political dispute involved the administration’s opposition to proposed steel-price increases. In April 1962, after several steel companies announced price rises, Kennedy publicly criticized the move; most companies soon reversed course. The episode contributed to uncertainty among investors, although market declines cannot usually be attributed to one announcement alone. The sell-off reached its low on June 26, 1962, after the Dow had fallen roughly 27% from its late-1961 high. It was a bear-market episode, but it did not produce the prolonged economic collapse associated with 1929.