Which 1989 crash in the United States followed the leveraged buyout of United Airlines being called off?

The 1989 U.S. crash that followed the collapse of a leveraged buyout of United Airlines was the Friday the 13th mini-crash.

On October 13, 1989, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 190.58 points, or 6.91%. The immediate trigger was news that a proposed $6.75 billion leveraged buyout of United Airlines had failed. The deal’s collapse raised concern about junk bonds and the ability of highly leveraged transactions to obtain financing.

The decline was concentrated in financial and takeover-related shares, although selling spread across the market. It became one of the largest one-day percentage falls in the Dow’s history at that time. The market recovered much of the loss relatively quickly, so the episode did not develop into a prolonged crash like 1929 or 1987.

The event is called a “mini-crash” because of its limited duration and narrower underlying shock. It should not be confused with Black Friday shopping or the 1987 Black Monday crash, which occurred two years earlier.