Hong Kong’s stock exchange was the first major market to plunge on Black Monday in October 1987.
The Hong Kong market suffered a severe sell-off on October 19, 1987, as global investors reacted to concerns about valuations, interest rates, currency conditions, and computerized trading. The shock then moved westward through international time zones.
European markets fell after Hong Kong, and the New York Stock Exchange experienced its historic collapse later that day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 22.6%, while several other markets recorded similarly dramatic declines.
Hong Kong’s role is sometimes obscured because the term Black Monday is strongly associated with Wall Street. However, the 1987 event was global rather than solely American. The sequence illustrates how linked trading hours and international investment flows can transmit a financial panic from one market to another.