The 1973 oil crisis helped trigger the severe 1973–1974 global stock-market decline.
The crisis began in October 1973 when Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an oil embargo against countries viewed as supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Oil prices rose sharply, producing inflation, energy shortages, and economic uncertainty across many industrial economies.
The stock-market decline was part of a wider breakdown in confidence. Markets had already been affected by inflation, slower economic growth, and the end of the postwar expansion. Higher energy costs squeezed companies and consumers, while rising prices complicated monetary policy. In the United States, the bear market lasted from January 1973 until October 1974, and the Dow lost a large share of its value.
The 1973 oil crisis is sometimes confused with the separate 1979 oil crisis, which followed the Iranian Revolution. Both episodes caused energy-price shocks, but the earlier crisis was directly connected to the Yom Kippur War and the subsequent embargo. The stock-market decline therefore had several causes, with oil acting as a major catalyst.