Which U.S. stock-market event became known as the Flash Crash of 2010?

The U.S. stock-market event known as the Flash Crash of 2010 occurred on May 6, 2010.

During that afternoon, major U.S. equity indexes plunged rapidly before recovering much of their losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly fell nearly 1,000 points, an extraordinary move for such a short period. Many individual securities also experienced prices that appeared inconsistent with normal trading.

Investigations concluded that automated trading, market liquidity, and a large sell order in futures helped interact in destabilizing ways. The event showed how quickly modern electronic markets could transmit shocks across exchanges and securities. It also prompted changes to trading safeguards, including circuit breakers and rules for handling clearly erroneous trades.

The Flash Crash is distinct from the broader 2008 financial crisis and from the 2010 European sovereign-debt turmoil. It was a brief, market-wide liquidity event rather than a long-lasting collapse in asset values.