The 1973 oil crisis helped drive the severe global stock-market crash known as the 1970s bear market.
In October 1973, Arab members of OPEC proclaimed an oil embargo against countries seen as supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Oil prices rose sharply, increasing production and transport costs while fueling inflation in many economies.
The stock-market decline also reflected recession, high interest rates, and the end of a long postwar expansion. In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell from its January 1973 high to its December 1974 low by about 45%.
The crash is often labeled the 1973–74 stock-market crash, but it was not caused by oil alone. The 1979 energy crisis was a separate shock, and the Suez Crisis occurred in 1956. The period helped establish stagflation as a defining economic problem.