The 2010 Flash Crash caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to briefly lose nearly 1,000 points.
On May 6, 2010, major U.S. stock indexes fell and rebounded within minutes. The Dow dropped about 998.5 points, or roughly 9%, from its previous close before recovering much of the loss. Some individual securities experienced even more extreme temporary price movements.
Investigations by U.S. regulators concluded that a large automated sell order in E-mini S&P 500 futures, combined with existing market stress and high-frequency trading, helped create a rapid liquidity imbalance. Trading systems withdrew or overwhelmed available bids, producing an unusually fast cascade of sales. The event exposed weaknesses in market structure rather than a conventional, weeks-long economic crash.
The Flash Crash led regulators and exchanges to strengthen safeguards, including circuit breakers and coordinated trading pauses. It is distinct from Black Monday in 1987 and the 2008 financial crisis: the defining feature was speed, with the largest movements occurring over a very short period.