Which day was the 1987 global stock-market crash known as Black Monday?
Answer
October 19, 1987
Black Monday, the 1987 global stock-market crash, occurred on October 19, 1987.
On that Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 508 points, or 22.6 percent, its largest one-day percentage decline. Major markets in Europe, Asia, and Australia also suffered steep losses, making the event genuinely international rather than solely an American crash.
The fall followed a sharp rise in stock prices during the first half of the 1980s. Concerns about interest rates, economic growth, trade deficits, and an overvalued market were intensified by computerized trading and portfolio-insurance strategies. Those systems could generate large waves of sell orders as prices dropped.
Black Monday is often confused with Black Tuesday of 1929, which occurred during the earlier Wall Street Crash. The 1987 decline was severe, but the market recovered much more quickly than it did after 1929. Regulators later introduced circuit breakers and other safeguards to slow trading during extreme price movements.