Which 1973–1974 stock-market crash ended with the Dow near its lowest level since 1962?

The 1973–1974 bear market was the stock-market crash that ended with the Dow near its lowest level since 1962.

The decline unfolded from January 1973 to October 1974 and affected major markets in the United States and elsewhere. In the United States, investors faced high inflation, recession, political uncertainty from the Watergate scandal, and the 1973 oil crisis. The Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries’ oil embargo helped drive energy prices sharply higher after October 1973.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its bear-market low on December 6, 1974, after losing roughly 45 percent from its January 1973 peak. The period is sometimes linked narrowly to the oil shock, but the market decline had multiple causes and began before the embargo. It is also distinct from the 1970 bear market and from the 1987 crash. The downturn ended a long postwar advance in U.S. equities and became one of the most severe American market declines since the Great Depression.