Wall Street’s ‘darkest days’

States stocks took a historic tumble on Monday, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average at one point losing almost 1,600 points, the biggest-ever dip during trading, before recovering to close down 4.6 per cent.

While sending waves through the global financial system, Monday’s swoon — which ended at 23,923.88, erasing all of this year’s gains — was far from Wall Street’s most devastating.

‰ On October 19 1987 — almost 58 years to the day after the Wall Street crash at the start of the Great Depression in 1929 — the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost a stunning 22.6 per cent, falling 508 points to close at 1,738.74. The crash was the equivalent of more than 5,500 points in today’s terms.

‰ Stock markets were shut for a calendar week after terror attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 2001. The Dow sank 7.1 per cent, or 684 points, on September 17, the first day trading resumed.

‰ At the start of the 2008 financial crisis, the Dow suffered what was then its biggest one-day point drop ever on September 29, losing seven per cent, or 778 points, after lawmakers failed to adopt a US$700 billion (RM2.8 trillion) bailout plan — erasing more than US$1 trillion in market value.

‰ Wall Street got a serious case of the jitters the day after British voters’ shock decision to exit the European Union. On June 24 2016 all three major indices erased year-to-date gains by falling more than three per cent, with the Dow falling 611.21 points, or 3.4 per cent, to close at 17,399.86.

‰ The most devastating Wall Street crash occurred over several days in 1929 and preceded the start of the Great Depression. On October 28 1929, the Dow fell 12.8 per cent, or 38.33 points, the height of the worst financial panic Americans had ever seen, feeding into misery that would last for years.