The United States experienced the 1929 stock-market crash after speculation and margin buying had surged on Wall Street.
The New York Stock Exchange was the center of the collapse. During the 1920s, many investors bought shares with borrowed money, increasing potential gains but also making portfolios vulnerable to forced selling. Prices rose rapidly, especially in the later part of the decade, even as some economic fundamentals failed to justify the valuations.
The crash unfolded through several dramatic sessions in October 1929, including Black Thursday, Black Monday, and Black Tuesday. Its consequences spread internationally through trade, lending, commodity prices, and banking connections. The crash is often treated as the start of the Great Depression, although the Depression resulted from a wider combination of financial, monetary, and economic forces. The United States was the country at the center of the stock exchange event, while the resulting downturn became a global crisis.