The Arab oil embargo helped trigger a major global stock-market decline in 1973 by restricting oil supplies to some Western countries.
The embargo began in October 1973 after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. Arab members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries reduced or stopped exports to countries viewed as supporting Israel, including the United States and the Netherlands. Oil prices rose dramatically.
The shock contributed to inflation, weaker economic growth, and falling corporate profits in oil-importing economies. Stock markets declined during a broader period of instability that also included the end of the postwar boom, wage pressures, and monetary problems. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ultimately fell substantially from its January 1973 high to its December 1974 low.
The embargo is often confused with the 1979 oil crisis, which followed the Iranian Revolution. Both caused energy-price shocks, but they occurred in different geopolitical circumstances and helped shape different phases of the 1970s economic turmoil.