Which pandemic triggered the rapid global stock-market crash that began in February 2020?

The pandemic that triggered the rapid global stock-market crash beginning in February 2020 was the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the novel coronavirus spread beyond China, investors reassessed expected economic activity, corporate earnings, travel, energy demand, and supply chains. Equity markets fell rapidly in February and March 2020. The sell-off was intensified by uncertainty and by a dispute among major oil producers that contributed to a sharp oil-price collapse in early March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average entered a bear market on March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. Several U.S. market-wide circuit breakers were triggered during the month. Governments and central banks then introduced exceptional fiscal, monetary, and public-health measures.

The crash is sometimes treated as purely a health event, but financial markets were also reacting to an abrupt expected economic shutdown and stresses in credit and energy markets. The subsequent recovery was uneven across sectors, and technology shares often behaved differently from travel, hospitality, and energy companies.