The United States’ stock exchange suffered the largest one-day fall during the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
The crash centered on the New York Stock Exchange, then the world’s leading financial market. On 28 October 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 12.82%, followed by a further 11.73% decline on 29 October, later known as Black Tuesday. These falls came after a long speculative rise in US share prices.
The collapse damaged banks, businesses, and household wealth, although the crash itself did not single-handedly cause the entire Great Depression. Falling demand, bank failures, debt problems, trade contraction, and policy choices deepened the economic downturn. Markets in other countries also declined, but the New York market was the central venue and produced the most famous daily losses. The exact timing of the crash is sometimes reduced to Black Tuesday alone, even though the sharp selling unfolded over several days.