The 1973–1974 stock-market collapse was the bear market that followed the oil crisis and ended the postwar bull market in the United States.
From January 1973 to October 1974, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell sharply, while inflation and recession damaged investor confidence. The crisis followed the 1973 oil shock, when OPEC members imposed an embargo on several countries and energy prices surged.
The period also included the unraveling of the “Nifty Fifty” investment fashion, political uncertainty surrounding Watergate, and broader concerns about economic stagnation. These pressures combined rather than operating as a single cause.
This episode is distinct from the 1970s oil crisis itself: the oil shock was an economic and geopolitical event, while the stock-market crash describes the sustained collapse in equity prices. It also predates the much faster Black Monday decline of 1987.