Question: What day of the week was the Wall Street Crash?
Answer: Thursday

The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday (October 29),  the Great Crash, or the Stock Market Crash of 1929, began on October 24, 1929 ("Black Thursday"), and was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its aftereffects.  The crash signaled the beginning of the 10-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries. 

Timeline

The Roaring Twenties, the decade that followed World War I and led to the Crash,  was a time of wealth and excess. Building on post-war optimism, rural Americans immigrated to the cities in vast numbers throughout the decade with the hopes of finding a more prosperous life in the ever growing expansion of America's industrial sector. While the American cities prospered, the overproduction of agricultural produce created widespread financial despair among American farmers throughout the decade.  This would later be blamed as one of the key factors that led to the 1929 stock market crash. 

Despite the dangers of speculation, many believed that the stock market would continue to rise forever. On March 25, 1929, after the Federal Reserve warned of excessive speculation, a mini crash occurred as investors started to sell stocks at a rapid pace, exposing the market's shaky foundation. Two days later, banker Charles E. Mitchell announced his company the National City Bank would provide $25 million in credit to stop the market's slide. Mitchell's move brought a temporary halt to the financial crisis and call money declined from 20 to 8 percent. However, the American economy showed ominous signs of trouble: steel production declined, construction was sluggish, automobile sales went down, and consumers were building up high debts because of easy credit. Despite all these economic trouble signs and the market breaks in March and May 1929, stocks resumed their advance in June and the gains continued almost unabated until early September 1929 (the Dow Jones average gained more than 20% between June and September). The market had been on a nine-year run that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average increase in value tenfold, peaking at 381.17 on September 3, 1929. Shortly before the crash, economist Irving Fisher famously proclaimed, "Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."  The optimism and financial gains of the great bull market were shaken on September 18, 1929, when prices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) abruptly fell a few days after a well publicized warning from financial expert Roger Babson that "a crash was coming". The initial September decline was thus called the "Babson Break" in the press.

On September 20, the London Stock Exchange officially crashed when top British investor Clarence Hatry and many of his associates were jailed for fraud and forgery. The London crash greatly weakened the optimism of American investment in markets overseas. In the days leading up to the crash, the market was severely unstable. Periods of selling and high volumes were interspersed with brief periods of rising prices and recovery.

On October 24 ("Black Thursday"), the market lost 11 percent of its value at the opening bell on very heavy trading. The huge volume meant that the report of prices on the ticker tape in brokerage offices around the nation was hours late, so investors had no idea what most stocks were actually trading for at that moment, increasing panic. Several leading Wall Street bankers met to find a solution to the panic and chaos on the trading floor.  The meeting included Thomas W. Lamont, acting head of Morgan Bank; Albert Wiggin, head of the Chase National Bank; and Charles E. Mitchell, president of the National City Bank of New York. They chose Richard Whitney, vice president of the Exchange, to act on their behalf.

With the bankers' financial resources behind him, Whitney placed a bid to purchase a large block of shares in U.S. Steel at a price well above the current market. As traders watched, Whitney then placed similar bids on other "blue chip" stocks. This tactic was similar to one that ended the Panic of 1907. It succeeded in halting the slide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered, closing with it down only 6.38 points for the day. The rally continued on Friday, October 25, and the half day session on Saturday the 26th but, unlike 1907, the respite was only temporary.

Over the weekend, the events were covered by the newspapers across the United States. On October 28, "Black Monday",  more investors facing margin calls decided to get out of the market, and the slide continued with a record loss in the Dow for the day of 38.33 points, or 13%.

The next day, "Black Tuesday", October 29, 1929, about 16 million shares traded as the panic selling reached its crescendo. Some stocks actually had no buyers at any price that day ("air pockets"). The Dow lost an additional 30 points, or 12 percent.     The volume of stocks traded on October 29, 1929 was a record that was not broken for nearly 40 years.

On October 29, William C. Durant joined with members of the Rockefeller family and other financial giants to buy large quantities of stocks to demonstrate to the public their confidence in the market, but their efforts failed to stop the large decline in prices. Due to the massive volume of stocks traded that day, the ticker did not stop running until about 7:45 p.m. that evening. The market had lost over $30 billion in the space of two days which included $14 billion on October 29 alone.[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/ New York: A Documentary Film] PBS

After a one-day recovery on October 30, where the Dow regained an additional 28.40 points, or 12 percent, to close at 258.47, the market continued to fall, arriving at an interim bottom on November 13, 1929, with the Dow closing at 198.60. The market then recovered for several months, starting on November 14, with the Dow gaining 18.59 points to close at 217.28, and reaching a secondary closing peak (i.e., bear market rally) of 294.07 on April 17, 1930. The following year, the Dow embarked on another, much longer, steady slide from April 1931 to July 8, 1932 when it closed at 41.22—its lowest level of the 20th century, concluding an 89 percent loss rate for all of the market's stocks. For most of the 1930s, the Dow began slowly to regain the ground it lost during the 1929 crash and the three years following it, beginning on March 15, 1933, with the largest percentage increase of 15.34 percent, with the Dow Jones closing at 62.10, with an 8.26 point increase. The largest percentage increases of the Dow Jones occurred during the early and mid-1930s. In late 1937, there was a sharp dip in the stock market, but prices held well above the 1932 lows. The market would not return to the peak closing of September 3, 1929 until November 23, 1954.  

Analysis

Economic fundamentals

The crash followed a speculative boom that had taken hold in the late 1920s. During the later half of the 1920s, steel production, building construction, retail turnover, automobiles registered, even railway receipts advanced from record to record. The combined net profits of 536 manufacturing and trading companies showed an increase, in fact for the first six months of 1929, of 36.6% over 1928, itself a record half-year. Iron and steel led the way with doubled gains.  Such figures set up a crescendo of stock-exchange speculation which had led hundreds of thousands of Americans to invest heavily in the stock market. A significant number of them were borrowing money to buy more stocks. By August 1929, brokers were routinely lending small investors more than two-thirds of the face value of the stocks they were buying. Over $8.5 billion was out on loan,  more than the entire amount of currency circulating in the U.S. at the time. 

The rising share prices encouraged more people to invest; people hoped the share prices would rise further. Speculation thus fueled further rises and created an economic bubble. Because of margin buying, investors stood to lose large sums of money if the market turned down—or even failed to advance quickly enough. The average P/E (price to earnings) ratio of S&P Composite stocks was 32.6 in September 1929,  clearly above historical norms. 

Good harvests had built up a mass of 250 million bushels of wheat to be "carried over" when 1929 opened. By May there was also a winter-wheat crop of 560 million bushels ready for harvest in the Mississippi Valley. This oversupply caused a drop in wheat prices so heavy that the net incomes of the farming population from wheat were threatened with extinction. Stock markets are always sensitive to the future state of commodity markets, and the slump in Wall Street predicted for May by Sir George Paish arrived on time. In June 1929, the position was saved by a severe drought in the Dakotas and the Canadian West, plus unfavorable seed times in Argentina and eastern Australia. The oversupply would now be wanted to fill the big gaps in the 1929 world wheat production. From 97¢ per bushel in May, the price of wheat rose to $1.49 in July. When it was seen that at this figure the American farmers would get rather more for their smaller crop than for that of 1928, up went stocks again and from far and wide orders came to buy shares for the profits to come.

In August, the wheat price fell when France and Italy were bragging of a magnificent harvest, and the situation in Australia improved. This sent a shiver through Wall Street and stock prices quickly dropped, but word of cheap stocks brought a fresh rush of 'stags,' amateur speculators and investors. Congress had also voted for a 100 million dollar relief package for the farmers, hoping to stabilize wheat prices. By October though, the price had fallen to $1.31 per bushel. 

Other important economic barometers were also slowing or even falling by mid-1929, including car sales, house sales, and steel production. The falling commodity and industrial production may have dented even American self-confidence, and the stock market peaked on September 3 at 381.17 just after Labor Day, then started to falter after Roger Babson issued his prescient "market crash" forecast. By the end of September, the market was down 10% from the peak (the "Babson Break"). Selling intensified in early and mid October, with sharp down days punctuated by a few up days. Panic selling on huge volume started the week of October 21 and intensified and culminated on October 24, the 28th and especially the 29th ("Black Tuesday"). 

The president of the Chase National Bank said at the time "We are reaping the natural fruit of the orgy of speculation in which millions of people have indulged. It was inevitable, because of the tremendous increase in the number of stockholders in recent years, that the number of sellers would be greater than ever when the boom ended and selling took the place of buying." 

Subsequent actions

In 1932, the Pecora Commission was established by the U.S. Senate to study the causes of the crash. The following year, the U.S. Congress passed the Glass–Steagall Act mandating a separation between commercial banks, which take deposits and extend loans, and investment banks, which underwrite, issue, and distribute stocks, bonds, and other securities.

After the experience of the 1929 crash, stock markets around the world instituted measures to suspend trading in the event of rapid declines, claiming that the measures would prevent such panic sales. However, the one-day crash of Black Monday, October 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6%, was worse in percentage terms than any single day of the 1929 crash (although the combined 25% decline of October 28–29, 1929 was larger than October 19, 1987, and remains the worst two-day decline ever).

World War II

The American mobilization for World War II at the end of 1941 moved approximately ten million people out of the civilian labor force and into the war.  World War II had a dramatic effect on many parts of the economy, and may have hastened the end of the Great Depression in the United States.  Government-financed capital spending accounted for only 5 percent of the annual U.S. investment in industrial capital in 1940; by 1943, the government accounted for 67 percent of U.S. capital investment.

Effects

Together, the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression formed the largest financial crisis of the 20th century.  The panic of October 1929 has come to serve as a symbol of the economic contraction that gripped the world during the next decade.  The falls in share prices on October 24 and 29, 1929 were practically instantaneous in all financial markets, except Japan. 

The Wall Street Crash had a major impact on the U.S. and world economy, and it has been the source of intense academic debate—historical, economic, and political—from its aftermath until the present day. Some people believed that abuses by utility holding companies contributed to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Depression that followed.  Many people blamed the crash on commercial banks that were too eager to put deposits at risk on the stock market. 

The 1929 crash brought the Roaring Twenties to a shuddering halt.  As tentatively expressed by economic historian Charles P. Kindleberger, in 1929, there was no lender of last resort effectively present, which, if it had existed and were properly exercised, would have been key in shortening the business slowdown[s] that normally follows financial crises. The crash marked the beginning of widespread and long-lasting consequences for the United States. Historians still debate the question: did the 1929 Crash spark The Depression,  or did it merely coincide with the bursting of a loose credit-inspired economic bubble? Only 16% of American households were invested in the stock market within the United States during the period leading up to the depression, suggesting that the crash carried somewhat less of a weight in causing the depression.

However, the psychological effects of the crash reverberated across the nation as businesses became aware of the difficulties in securing capital markets investments for new projects and expansions. Business uncertainty naturally affects job security for employees, and as the American worker (the consumer) faced uncertainty with regards to income, naturally the propensity to consume declined. The decline in stock prices caused bankruptcies and severe macroeconomic difficulties including contraction of credit, business closures, firing of workers, bank failures, decline of the money supply, and other economic depressing events.

The resultant rise of mass unemployment is seen as a result of the crash, although the crash is by no means the sole event that contributed to the depression. The Wall Street Crash is usually seen as having the greatest impact on the events that followed and therefore is widely regarded as signaling the downward economic slide that initiated the Great Depression.
True or not, the consequences were dire for almost everybody. Most academic experts agree on one aspect of the crash: It wiped out billions of dollars of wealth in one day, and this immediately depressed consumer buying.

The failure set off a worldwide run on US gold deposits (i.e., the dollar), and forced the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates into the slump. Some 4,000 banks and other lenders ultimately failed. Also, the uptick rule,  which allowed short selling only when the last tick in a stock's price was positive, was implemented after the 1929 market crash to prevent short sellers from driving the price of a stock down in a bear raid. 

Academic debate

Economists and historians disagree as to what role the crash played in subsequent economic, social, and political events. The Economist argued in a 1998 article that the Depression did not start with the stock market crash.  Nor was it clear at the time of the crash that a depression was starting. They asked, "Can a very serious Stock Exchange collapse produce a serious setback to industry when industrial production is for the most part in a healthy and balanced condition?" They argued that there must be some setback, but there was not yet sufficient evidence to prove that it will be long or that it need go to the length of producing a general industrial depression. 

But The Economist also cautioned that some bank failures are also to be expected and some banks may not have any reserves left for financing commercial and industrial enterprises. They concluded that the position of the banks is the key to the situation, but what was going to happen could not have been foreseen.

Academics see the Wall Street Crash of 1929 as part of a historical process that was a part of the new theories of boom and bust. According to economists such as Joseph Schumpeter, Nikolai Kondratiev and Charles E. Mitchell the crash was merely a historical event in the continuing process known as economic cycles. The impact of the crash was merely to increase the speed at which the cycle proceeded to its next level.

Milton Friedman's A Monetary History of the United States, co-written with Anna Schwartz, advances the argument that what made the "great contraction" so severe was not the downturn in the business cycle, protectionism, or the 1929 stock market crash in themselves - but instead, according to Friedman, what plunged the country into a deep depression was the collapse of the banking system during three waves of panics over the 1930–33 period.

The Wall Street Crash, 1929
The Wall Street Crash, 1929
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The "Roaring 20s" that followed the end of World War I was a period of prosperity for most Americans. As the economy grew, stock prices soared. By the end of the decade, as many as 25 million Americans had placed money in the stock market in order to share in the wealth. The best part of the process was that you didn't need a lot of cash to join the party. You could buy your stock on margin. That is, borrow the money for your stock purchase using the value of the stock itself as collateral. It is estimated that by 1929, the total amount of debt amassed by the practice had reached six billion dollars. It was a house of cards that remained erect as long as stocks continued to increase in value. However, if stock prices plummeted, the whole rickety structure could collapse.
Variety's headline after the Crash
The tremors that would eventually destroy this flimsy economic edifice made their first rumblings in September 1929. The market dropped sharply at the beginning of the month but rose again only to drop and rise again. The rollercoaster ride continued in October as the beginning of the month saw another drop followed by another burst of strength. Then came Black Thursday � October 24 � when a drop in stock prices triggered a burst of panic-selling so frantic that it overwhelmed the Stock Exchange's ability to keep track of the transactions.
Wall Street financers were able to reverse the downward plunge only by buying   as many shares of stock as they could over the next two days. It was a temporary   victory. Monday's opening bell unleashed a frenzy of selling that soon turned   into an uncontrolled panic that continued for the rest of the trading day.   The following day � Black Tuesday, October 29 � saw the previous day's panic   turn into bedlam on the trading floor.
According to one observer, traders "hollered and screamed, they clawed at one another's collars. It was like a bunch of crazy men. Every once in a while, when Radio or Steel or Auburn would take another tumble, you'd see some poor devil collapse and fall to the floor." This was the Crash, although few could see it at the time. The Market continued its decline but never as dramatic. Thirty billion dollars had been lost - more than twice the national debt. The nation reeled, and slipped into the depths of the Great Depression.
"This was real panic."
Jonathan Leonard was a reporter who was on the scene as Wall Street tumbled. We join his story following "Black Thursday."
"That Saturday and Sunday Wall Street hummed with week-day activity. The great buildings were ablaze with lights all night as sleepy clerks fought desperately to get the accounts in shape for the Monday opening. Horrified brokers watched the selling orders accumulate. It wasn't a flood; it was a deluge. Everybody wanted to sell-the man with five shares and the man with ten thousand. Evidently the week-end cheer barrage had not hit its mark.
ADVERTISMENT
Monday was a rout for the banking pool, which was still supposed to be 'on guard.' If it did any net buying at all, which is doubtful, the market paid little attention. Leading stocks broke through the support levels as soon as trading started and kept sinking all day. Periodically the news would circulate that the banks were about to turn the tide as they had done on Thursday, but it didn't happen. A certain cynicism developed in the board rooms as the day wore on. Obviously the big financial interests had abandoned the market to its fate, probably intending to pick up the fragments cheap when the wreck hit the final bottom. 'Very well,' said the little man, 'I shall do the same.'
When the market finally closed, 9,212,800 shares had been sold. The Times index of 25 industrials fell from 367.42 to 318.29. The whole list showed alarming losses, and margin calls were on their way to those speculators who had not already sold out.
That night Wall Street was lit up like a Christmas tree. Restaurants, barber shops, and speakeasies were open and doing a roaring business. Messenger boys and runners raced through the streets whooping and singing at the tops of their lungs. Slum children invaded the district to play with balls of ticker tape. Well-dressed gentlemen fell asleep in lunch counters. All the downtown hotels, rooming houses, even flophouses were full of financial employees who usually slept in the Bronx. It was probably Wall Street's worst night. Not only had the day been bad, but everybody down to the youngest office boy had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen tomorrow.
Bewildered crowds on Wall Street
The morning papers were black with the story of the Monday smash. Except for rather feeble hopes that the great banks would step into the gap they had no heart for cheerful headlines. In the inside pages, however, the sunshine chorus continued as merry as ever. Bankers said that heavy buying had been sighted on the horizon. Brokers were loud with "technical" reasons why the decline could not continue.
It wasn't only the financial bigwigs who spoke up. Even the outriders of the New Era felt that if everybody pretended to be happy, their phoney smiles would blow the trouble away. Jimmy Walker, for example, asked the movie houses to show only cheerful pictures. True Story Magazine, currently suffering from delusions of grandeur, ran full page advertisements in many papers urging all wage earners to buy luxuries on credit. That would fix things right up. McGraw-Hill Company, another publishing house with boom-time megalomania, told the public to avert its eyes from the obscene spectacle in Wall Street. What they did not observe would not affect their state of mind and good times could continue as before.
These noble but childish dabbles in mass psychology failed as utterly as might have been expected. Even the more substantial contributions of U.S. Steel and American Can in the shape of $1 extra dividends had the same fate. Ordinarily such action would have sent the respective stocks shooting upward, but in the present mood of the public it created not the slightest ripple of interest. Steel and Can plunged down as steeply as if they had canceled their dividends entirely. The next day, Tuesday, the 29th of October, was the worst of all. In the first half hour 3,259,800 shares were traded, almost a full day's work for the laboring machinery of the Exchange. The selling pressure was wholly without precedent. It was coming from everywhere. The wires to other cities were jammed with frantic orders to sell. So were the cables, radio and telephones to Europe and the rest of the world. Buyers were few, sometimes wholly absent. Often the specialists stood baffled at their posts, sellers pressing around them and not a single buyer at any price.
This was real panic. It was what the banks had prevented on Thursday, had slowed on Monday. Now they were helpless. Reportedly they were trying to force their associated corporations to toss their buying power into the whirlpool, but they were getting no results. Albert Conway, New York State Superintendent of Insurance, took the dubious step of urging the companies under his jurisdiction to buy common stocks. If they did so, their buying was insufficient to halt the rout."
References:
   This account appears in: Leonard, Jonathan Norton, Three Years Down (1944); Allen, Frederick, Lewis, Since Yesterday: the 30's in America (1972).
How To Cite This Article:
"The Wall Street Crash, 1929," EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2008).

Stock market crashes - Oct 29, 1929 - HISTORY.com
Stock market crashes
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Black Tuesday hits Wall Street as investors trade 16,410,030 shares on the New York Stock Exchange in a single day. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading. In the aftermath of Black Tuesday, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression.
During the 1920s, the U.S. stock market underwent rapid expansion, reaching its peak in August 1929, a period of wild speculation. By then, production had already declined and unemployment had risen, leaving stocks in great excess of their real value. Among the other causes of the eventual market collapse were low wages, the proliferation of debt, a weak agriculture, and an excess of large bank loans that could not be liquidated.
Stock prices began to decline in September and early October 1929, and on October 18 the fall began. Panic set in, and on October 24—Black Thursday—a record 12,894,650 shares were traded. Investment companies and leading bankers attempted to stabilize the market by buying up great blocks of stock, producing a moderate rally on Friday. On Monday, however, the storm broke anew, and the market went into free fall. Black Monday was followed by Black Tuesday, in which stock prices collapsed completely.
After October 29, 1929, stock prices had nowhere to go but up, so there was considerable recovery during succeeding weeks. Overall, however, prices continued to drop as the United States slumped into the Great Depression, and by 1932 stocks were worth only about 20 percent of their value in the summer of 1929. The stock market crash of 1929 was not the sole cause of the Great Depression, but it did act to accelerate the global economic collapse of which it was also a symptom. By 1933, nearly half of America’s banks had failed, and unemployment was approaching 15 million people, or 30 percent of the workforce. It would take World War II, and the massive level of armaments production taken on by the United States, to finally bring the country out of the Depression after a decade of suffering.
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Headlines .    The Crash of 1929        . WGBH American Experience    | PBS
Other Primary Resources
Stock market news moved from the financial pages to the front pages as the number of first-time investors grew in the 1920s. Throughout 1929 daily papers reported that the future looked bright for investors — even after the devastating market crash in October.
Read newspaper excerpts from three New York papers: The World, The New York Herald Tribune, and The New York Times.
Wave of Buying Sweeps Over Market as Stocks Swing Upward
Radio Flashes High; General Motors and Steels Soar
By Laurence Stern
The atmosphere of doubt and caution which Wall Street in recent weeks has come to regard almost as habitual on Thursdays was swept away yesterday in a rush of buying…
Perhaps the market’s own strength weighed as heavily with speculative minds as the logic of the situation, since the tape is the one institution Wall Street does not argue with. At any rate, the market appeared entirely confident from the opening gong. It was a firm, almost buoyant, opening, many initial transactions involving large blocks at sizable price advances…
The advance was one of the most vigorous of the year, amounting to a net gain of 6.97 points in the Dow Jones “average” of thirty representative industrial issues…
— The World, March 15, 1929
Stocks Soar As Bank Aid Ends Fear of Money Panic
By W. A. Lyon
The stock market strode out from under the shadow of a panic in call money that so lately threatened, revived in all its old strength yesterday. Assured that the New York banks were ready with their boundless resources to prevent a money crisis, the public and the professional trader set out to repair the damage done to prices on Monday and the major part of Tuesday.
Stocks in the aggregate, though bucking a 15 per cent rate for loans, enjoyed the greatest advance they have known in a single day in the last two years. Not even the surging bull markets of the memorable year 1928 saw such a day of heavy buying.
— New York Herald Tribune, March 28, 1929
Banker Says Boom Will Run Into 1930
That at least a part of the great amount of money in the securities market may represent temporary employment of funds eventually finding their way into business uses, and that the prosperity of the present business cycle will probably not end in 1929, is the belief expressed by the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation in the quarterly review of the London house of Schroder.
— The World, March 30, 1929
Brokers to Open Offices on Ships
The New York Stock Exchange decided yesterday to put to sea. It gave two brokerage houses permission to establish offices with continuous stock quotations by radio, on trans-Atlantic ships. Within a few weeks business will be following the flags of three nations across the bounding main.
The American business man will be able to take a vacation in Europe without stopping for a single day his transactions at the centre of speculation…
What the psychological effect may be remains to be seen. Lady Luck always has been a favorite companion for diversions seekers at sea, a fact that has provided good incomes to many generations of traveling card players. Ships’ pools and the “horse races” on deck always have been popular. They may retain their popularity, but now they will be outclassed.
— The World, October 4, 1929
Public Liquidation Spurred by Bears, Hits Low Market
Scare Orders From All Over Country Halt Ticker an Hour in Feverish Day
By Laurence Stern
With speculative nerves rubbed raw under the persistent hammering of bearish traders, a renewed wave of public liquidation swept over the stock market yesterday, depressing prices severely and hopelessly clogging the quotation ticker…
...To the majority of the market’s followers, who now must be counted in millions, the most significant aspect of the decline is that it has carried the average level of the list to a lower point than was reached on Oct. 4 in the sharp break that climaxed a month of gradual recession.
This raises a pertinent question, whether the bull movement of the last five years has definitely given way to a liquidating market…
— The World, October 20, 1929
Brokerage Houses Are Optimistic on the Recovery of Stocks
Brokers in Meeting Predict Recovery
A reassuring message to the stock market community went out last night over the country-wide network of private wires operated by brokerage houses. This was the result of a tacit agreement reached yesterday afternoon at a special meeting of the partners of about thirty-five of the largest wire houses of the New York Stock Exchange, at which the stock market situation was canvassed thoroughly…
...Much of the selling of the last few days, the brokers felt, was induced by hysteria. The views of all of the brokers present were heard, and none knew of anything disturbing to the general market situation…
— The New York Times, October 25, 1929
Brokers Believe Worst Is Over and Recommend Buying of Real Bargains
Wall Street in looking over the wreckage of the week, has come generally to the opinion that high grade investment issues can be bought now, without fear of a drastic decline. There is some difference of opinion as to whether not the correction must go further, but everyone realizes that the worst is over, and that there are bargains for those who are willing to buy conservatively and live through the immediate irregularity.
— New York Herald Tribune, October 27, 1929
Gigantic Bank Pool Pledged To Avert Disaster as Second Big Crash Stuns Wall Street
Largest Financial Powers in the City Meet After Day of Hysterical Liquidation Sinking Prices Below Thursday’s
By Laurence Stern
After the stock market had come crashing down again in a veritable deluge of forced and hysterical liquidation, word sped through the financial district last evening that the largest banks in the city were prepared to exert their organized power this morning to prevent further disaster.
Arrangements described as “fully adequate” were completed at a conference at the offices of J. P. Morgan & Co. at Broad and Wall Streets…
Although no formal statement was issued, it was the consensus of those at the meeting that the worst of the liquidation is over and that a natural demand for investment stocks now available on the bargain counter should go far toward an immediate restoration of trading stability.
— The World, October 29, 1929
Stocks Up in S
trong Rally; Rockefellers Big Buyers; Exchanges Close 2-1/2 Days
By Ferdinand Lundberg
Revived by spontaneous investment buying and declarations of large extra cash dividends by leading companies, and free of the delirium that has recently gripped share owners, the stock market yesterday received a fresh start and scored a record comeback. Volume on the Stock Exchange totaled 10,727,320 shares, the third largest day on record.
The high spot of the day from a stock market viewpoint was the statement by John D. Rockefeller that there was no need to destroy values and that he and his son, John D. Rockefeller Jr., had been heavy buyers of stocks for investment in the last few days, and would continue to buy at present prices…
— New York Herald Tribune, October 31, 1929
Very Prosperous Year Is Forecast
Guenther Analyzes the Report of Mellon Covering 1929
That 1930 may be a very prosperous year, industrially and otherwise, without the peak conditions that made 1929 an exceptional year for business prosperity, is an observation made by Louis Guenther, publisher of the Financial World, in a statement based upon Secretary Mellon’s fiscal report…
“To grow too fast is often unhealthy because of the suddenness with which a readjustment must be met. By far and large the country would be better off were further progress made along more normal lines…
Fortunately, we have returned to a more normal mind in appraising prospects. We are not looking for the Midas touch on everything to which we turn. That makes us more satisfied with normal incomes and normal profit returns.”
— The World, December 15, 1929

Wall Street Crash, 1929 | The Week UK
Wall Street Crash, 1929
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Crowds flock to Wall Street in New York after news of the stock market collapse. Right, the front page of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on 'Black Thursday', the first day of the crash. The stock market had been fuelled by a speculative boom throughout the 'Roaring Twenties', but it lost a quarter of its value over the course of just six days in late October 1929
In October 1929, the New York Stock Exchange collapsed
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Wall Street Crash of 1929 – Wall Street Crash
Wall Street Stock Market Crash of 2008
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The most consequential U.S. event of the 20th century would have to be the Wall Street Crash of 1929.  It not only had a country wide effect, but a long term global effect, resulting in a month long economic decline.  The crash would later be defined into three phases, Black Thursday, Black Monday, and Black Tuesday.
The decade leading up to the crash was a time of prosperity and wealth.  The stock market had experienced plateau highs, and there was increasing speculation that it would continue along this path for the long term.  More and more individuals saw the stock market as a good long term investment, and increasingly invested money in the market.  The market was seen as such a good investment that borrowing money to invest was becoming increasingly common.  At the time of the crash over 8.5 billion was out on loan, more than the amount of currency being circulated in the entire United States.  Brokers were routinely lending small investors up to 2/3 the face value of the stocks they were purchasing.  As a result, stock prices were rising which encouraged more people to invest, creating an economic bubble.
Black Thursday happened first, on October 24th, 1929.  The market finally turned down and investors began to panic.  In order to ease investors fears, a group of major banks (Morgan Bank, Chase National Bank, and National City Bank) got together and purchased a large block of shares in US steel.  They also purchased similar blocks of other “blue chip” stocks.  To no avail, on Black Monday, more investors decided to get out of the market, causing stocks to slip further down with a record loss in the Dow that day of 13%.  On Black Tuesday, amist rumors that president Herbert Hoover would not veto the pending Hawley-Smoot Tariff bill, the stock market plummeted even more.  Approximately 16 million shares were traded that day, a record that had not been broken in nearly 40 years in 1968.  The Dow lost another 12% that day.  The market lost 14 billion in value that day, bringing the week total losses to 30 billion, ten times more the the U.S. annual budget, more than the U.S. had spent in all of World War I.
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1929 Wall Street Stock Market Crash
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Brief History of The Crash of 1929 - TIME
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Seventy-nine years ago this week, the New York Stock Exchange experienced the worst financial panic the country had ever seen. There have been more crashes since  with bigger numbers and bigger losses  but nothing quite rivals the terror and devastation of Black Tuesday: October 29, 1929.
When President Calvin Coolidge delivered his 1928 State of the Union address, he noted that America had never "met with a more pleasing prospect than that which appears at the present time." Americans had a lot to be proud of back then: World War I was thoroughly behind them, radio had been invented, and automobiles were growing cheaper and more popular. Sure, the disparity between the rich and the poor had widened within the past decade, but Americans could now buy goods on installment plans  a relatively new concept  and families could afford more than ever before. Stocks were on a tear: between 1924 and 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average quadrupled. At that time, it was the longest bull market ever recorded; some thought it would last forever. In the fall of 1929, economist Irving Fisher announced that "stock prices have reached what looks like a permanent plateau." ( See pictures of the stock market crash of 1929. )
Unsurprisingly, this exuberance lured more investors to the market, investing on margin with borrowed money. By 1929, 2 out of every 5 dollars a bank loaned were used to purchase stocks.
The market peaked on September 3, 1929. Steel production was down, several banks had failed, and fewer homes were being built, but few paid attention  the Dow stood at 381.17, up 27% from the previous year. Over the next few weeks, however, prices began to move downward. And the lower they fell, the faster they picked up speed.
In the last hour of trading on Thursday, Oct. 23, 1929, stock prices suddenly plummeted. When the closing bell rang at 3 p.m. people were shaken. No one was sure what had just happened, but that evening provided enough time for fear and panic to set in. When the market opened again the next day, prices plunged with renewed violence. Stock transactions in those days were printed on ticker tape, which could only produce 285 words a minute. Thirteen million shares changed hands  the highest daily volume in the exchange's history at that point  and the tape didn't stop running until four hours after the market closed. The following day, President Herbert Hoover went on the radio to reassure the American people, saying "The fundamental business of the country...is on a sound and prosperous basis."
And then came Black Monday. As soon as the opening bell rang on Oct. 28, prices began to drop. Huge blocks of shares changed hands, as previously impregnable companies like U.S. Steel and General Electric began to tumble. By the end of the day, the Dow had dropped 13%. So many shares changed hands that day that traders didn't have time to record them all. They worked into the night, sleeping in their offices or on the floor, trying to catch up to be ready for October 29.
As the story goes, the opening bell was never heard on Black Tuesday because the shouts of "Sell! Sell! Sell!" drowned it out. In the first thirty minutes, 3 million shares changed hands and with them, another $2 million disappeared into thin air. Phone lines clogged. The volume of Western Union telegrams traveling across the country tripled. The ticker tape ran so far behind the actual transactions that some traders simply let it run out. Trades happened so quickly that although people knew they were losing money, they didn't know how much. Rumors of investors jumping out of buildings spread through Wall Street; although they weren't true, they drove the prices down further. Brokers called in margins; if stockholders couldn't pay up, their stocks were sold, wiping out many an investor's life savings in an instant. So many trades were made  each recorded on a slip of paper  that traders didn't know where to store them, and ended up stuffing them into trash cans. One trader fainted from exhaustion, was revived and put back to work. Others got into fistfights. The New York Stock Exchange's board of governors considered closing the market, but decided against it, lest the move increase the panic. When the market closed at 3 p.m., more than 16.4 million shares had changed hands, using 15,000 miles of ticker tape paper. The Dow had dropped another 12%.
In total, $25 billion  some $319 billion in today's dollars  was lost in the 1929 crash. Stocks continued to fall over subsequent weeks, finally bottoming out on November 13, 1929. The market recovered for a few months and then slid again, gliding swiftly and steadily with the rest of the country into the Great Depression. Companies incurred huge layoffs, unemployment skyrocketed, wages plummeted and the economy went into a tailspin. While World War II helped pull the country out of a Depression by the early 1940s, the stock market wouldn't recover to its pre-crash numbers until 1954.

Timeline .    The Crash of 1929     . American Experience . WGBH  | PBS
Page 1 of 2
1653: Early History
Dutch colonists construct a wooden stockade across lower Manhattan to protect the north side of their settlement against attacks by the British and Indians. By the turn of the 18th century, the British have taken over the colony and dismantled the barrier, turning it into a paved lane called Wall Street.
September 21, 1776
A devastating fire, probably the work of colonial arsonists trying to disrupt the British occupation of the city during the American Revolution, destroys hundreds of structures in the vicinity of Wall Street.
January 14, 1790
In his landmark Report on the Public Credit, the young nation’s first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton , proposes a method for the U.S. to handle federal and state debt by issuing government bonds, and establishes the principle of free trade for securities in the marketplace.
August 1790
Brokers meet in Philadelphia, where they buy and sell the first major issues of publicly-traded securities: $80 million in bonds issued by the federal government to pay off debt from the Revolutionary War .
May 17, 1792
At the Merchants’ Coffee House at the corner of Wall and Water Streets, two dozen New York City stockbrokers and merchants sign the “Buttonwood Agreement,” named after a buttonwood tree under which business has been transacted in the past. The agreement lists rules for securities transactions.
1793
The locus for securities transactions in New York moves to the Tontine Coffee House, across the street from the Merchants’ Coffee House. Business is also transacted on the street.
March 8, 1817
A group of New York brokers formally establish the New York Stock and Exchange Board, an organization that later will be renamed the New York Stock Exchange (N.Y.S.E.).
1829: 5,000 Shares a Day
The stock market reaches a trading volume of 5,000 shares a day.
December 16, 1835
On a bitterly cold night, a fire starts in lower Manhattan. Raging for two days, it will destroy 700 buildings, including the Merchants’ Exchange.
September 12, 1836
The N.Y.S.E. bars its members from conducting business in the streets.
March 22, 1837
The N.Y.S.E. starts paying its president a salary. The first paid president, David Clarkson, earns $2000 a year ($31,960 in 2003 dollars).
May 24, 1844
Samuel F. B. Morse transmits the first viable telegraph message. Securities brokers quickly adopt the technology to send market quotations. The telegraph helps expand the stock market by making trades accessible to brokers and investors outside of New York.
May 11, 1861
In response to the outbreak of the Civil War , trading of Confederate securities is banned.
July 27, 1866
Cyrus Field completes a transatlantic cable, connecting telegraph operators across the Atlantic Ocean. For the first time, London and New York markets can communicate instantaneously.
November 15, 1867
Edward Callahan invents the stock ticker, a device that shows current market prices and represents each company on the stock market with symbols based on Morse code .
September 24, 1869
Black Friday . A group of speculators led by Jay Gould and Jim Fiske try to corner the gold market, setting off a U.S. financial panic.
Library of Congress
Wall Street, 1873
September 18, 1873
The brokerage firm of Jay Cooke & Company, a major investor in new railroad construction , collapses, sparking the Panic of 1873 .
November 13, 1878
The N.Y.S.E. installs the first telephones on its trading floor.
November 1882: Dow Jones & Company
Charles Dow and Edward Jones form Dow Jones & Company and design the first index to measure the activity of the N.Y.S.E.
Library of Congress
Wall Street, 1884
May 6, 1884
The Wall Street brokerage firm of Grand and Ward fails, leading to a panic and the failure of 15 other stock exchange firms. Grant and Ward is co-owned by Buck Grant, the son of former Union general and president Ulysses S. Grant , and the failure plunges the ex-president into bankruptcy. Desperate for money, he will begin writing his wartime memoirs soon afterward.
December 15, 1886
The N.Y.S.E.'s trading volume reaches one million shares a day for the first time.
April 8, 1890
Junius S. Morgan, the head of the Morgan banking family, dies. His son, John Pierpont Morgan , will turn the family financial empire into one of the most powerful banking houses in the world.
May 26, 1896
Charles Dow reveals his industrial stock average in the first publication of his daily paper — the Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones creates four averages to measure market performance, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
January 12, 1906
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes the day at over 100 for the first time.
October 21, 1907
Rumors of financial problems at a leading New York bank trigger investors to run on banks throughout the city, beginning the Panic of 1907. J. P. Morgan devises a plan to return cash to banks, saving the country from its most severe financial crisis to date.
February 28, 1913
The Pujo Committee, appointed by Congress to investigate practices of the banking and securities industry, issues a report which leads Congress to create the Federal Reserve System. The Fed is designed to stabilize the nation’s banking structure.
July 31, 1914: WWI Begins
World War I begins in Europe, leading to sharp declines in world stock prices. The N.Y.S.E. and exchanges throughout the world temporarily suspend trading in order to stop prices from dropping further.
April 7, 1917
Following a series of German provocations, President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress for a formal declaration of war. The U.S. enters World War I .
June 8, 1917
A liberty loan rally is held on the trading floor of the N.Y.S.E., where former president William H. Taft encourages Americans to purchase war bonds.
Library of Congress
Able-bodied men return home from war.
November 11, 1918
The United States emerges from World War I as a creditor nation and a rising global force.
October 1923
A bull market begins. It will continue growing for nearly six years.
April 13, 1928
The N.Y.S.E. introduces new and improved high-speed tickers. The devices can print 500 characters per minute, almost twice as fast as the earlier models.
February 1929: 1929
Astrologer Evangeline Adams, who counts Charlie Chaplin , Mary Pickford , and J. P. Morgan among her clients, predicts the market will rise in the coming months.
March 15, 1929
Newspapers quote Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon saying there are bargains to be found in the bond market. Wall Street is in the midst of a buying frenzy. As the market rises, some begin to fear it will soon collapse. The Federal Reserve Board meets, but does not make any public statements.
March 4, 1929
President Herbert Hoover is inaugurated. Nicknamed “The Great Engineer,” the former geologist and mining engineer takes office amid booming prosperity. During the campaign, he has promised: “We shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.”
March 8, 1929
Michael J. Meehan begins one of the most successful brokerage pools in Wall Street history. Over the next ten days, he drives the value of R.C.A. stock up almost 50%. In today’s money, his pool will make the colluding investors $100 million.
March 25, 1929
A mini-crash begins as investors start to sell, revealing the market’s shaky foundations. For the many people playing the market with borrowed money, the day is a disaster, as margin calls wipe out their holdings. While the investors seek to borrow more money, interest rates soar to 20 percent. The New York Daily News calls it a “selling avalanche.”
March 27, 1929
Banker Charles Mitchell announces that the national city bank will provide $25 million in credit to stop the market’s slide. His move stops the panic, and call money declines from 20 to eight percent. Senator and former Treasury Secretary Carter Glass calls for Mitchell to resign from his post on the Federal Reserve Board because of his intervention in the market.
Spring, 1929
The American economy shows ominous signs of trouble. Steel production is declining, construction is sluggish, car sales are down, and consumers are building up high debts because of easy credit. Yet the stock market continues its upward momentum, heedless of real economic indicators.
May 14, 1929
The N.Y.S.E. opens a new bond room, adding 6,000 feet to the trading floor.
Summer, 1929
The market continues to rebound, and stocks hit record levels month after month.
August 17, 1929
Michael Meehan’s brokerage firm launches a new service: an office aboard ocean liners, including the Berengaria. This convenience allows transatlantic passengers to buy or sell shares during the weeklong passage between the U.S. and Europe.
September 3, 1929: The Market Reaches its Peak
After a surge of optimism, the bull market reaches its peak — the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at 381.17. A newspaper headline trumpets, “Public Demand for Stock Appears Insatiable.”
September 5, 1929
Bearish economist Roger Babson gives a speech, saying, “Sooner or later, a crash is coming, and it may be terrific.” He has been delivering this message for two years, but for the first time, investors listen. The market takes a severe dip, which will be called the “Babson Break.” The next day, prices will stabilize, but the collapse has begun.
Mid-September, 1929
The market fluctuates wildly up and down.
October 24, 1929
“Black Thursday.” The economic bubble finally bursts. Stock prices fall sharply on a day of heavy liquidation. Ticker tape runs four hours later than normal at a volume of 12.9 million shares. Headlines will report the market’s paper loss at $5 billion. A pool of bankers acts to stem the drop by putting more money into the market, and President Hoover reassures Americans that U.S. business is sound. Within a few days, a headline will read, “Brokers Believe Worst is Over and Recommend Buying of Real Bargains.”
October 28, 1929
“Black Monday.” The stock market falls 22.6%, the highest one-day decline in U.S. history. The crash triggers similar declines in markets around the world.
October 29, 1929
“Black Tuesday.” Panic sets in as investors all try to sell their stocks at once. Over 16 million shares of stock are sold, setting a record — and the market records over $14 billion in paper losses. Stock tickers cannot keep up with the heavy trading volume. At the end of the day, the market is down 33 points, more than 12.8%. Some of the nation’s financial elite, including General Motors’ William C. Durant and the Rockefeller family , show confidence by buying stocks, but their efforts fail to stem the tide.
November 23, 1929
After weeks in freefall, the market hits its bottom and stabilizes. The New York Times reports, “Regular Schedule to be Resumed, but Trading Will Be Suspended Last Half of Week; Business Nearly Normal.” The market’s daily volume is at 3 million shares with “orderly although irregular” prices.
Corbis
A desperate man sells his car for $100
January 7, 1931
A report released by the Committee for Unemployment Relief states that over four million Americans are unemployed.
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Glossary of Events: Wa
Wa
Wall Street Crash (October 1929)
The Wall Street Crash was the U.S. Stock Market crash of October 29, 1929, which precipitated a world-wide collapse of share values and triggered the Great Depression – 10 years of economic slump with catastrophic levels of unemployment across all the industrialised countries apart from the Soviet Union.
After the end of the First World War, the world economy was boosted by a period of reconstruction. In the early- to mid-1920s, a series of defeats were inflicted on the workers movement which had been engaged in revolutionary struggles in the wake of the War and the Russian Revolution. These events created conditions for an economic boom which became known as the “Roaring Twenties”. The value of shares on the US stock market rapidly climbed, reaching a peak at the end of August 1929. Prices began to decline in September and early October, while speculation continued, but came to an abrupt end on October 18, when the Stock Market began to fall precipitately. The first day of real panic, October 24, is known as “Black Thursday” – a record 12,894,650 shares were traded. Major banks and investment companies bought up stocks in an attempt to hold up prices and stem the panic, but the panic began again on “Black Monday”, and on “Black Tuesday”, October 29, 16,000,000 shares were sold, and prices on the stock market collapsed completely.
Bankruptcies and skyrocketing unemployment spread from the US to every country in the world, except the USSR, where production continued to expand after the devastation of the Wars of Intervention (1918-1922). The Soviet Union was relatively unaffected by the Crash, firstly because it was a planned economy and not dependent on speculation, and secondly because, in any case, it had been more or less isolated from the world economy. The Great Depression lasted into the late 1930s with 14 million unemployed in the US alone, most with little means of support until Roosevelt’s New Deal was brought in.
Share markets had collapsed before, indeed a ten-year business cycle of boom and bust was quite normal up to that time, but the particularly rampant speculation of the preceding decade of boom, inflating the value of shares, and the proliferation of holding companies and investment trusts and the extent of large bank loans in the U.S. had accumulated a vast mass of fictitious capital , and its collapse made this crash particularly spectacular. The extent of capitalist development meant that the effects of the crash were more devastating than ever before; every sector of the economy was tied up in bank loans and share issues. When the value of stocks fell, those who had invested in them lost money, including banks who had loaned money to failed firms; banks in trouble called in their loans, borrowers were invariably unable to pay and were repossessed and their businesses closed down; employees were put off and creditors remained unpaid, triggering an indefinite chain of bankruptcies and ejecting millions onto the dole queues; when the factories closed down people had no alternative means of livelihood. The preceding rapid growth of the world market meant that, as the saying went, “When America sneezed, the rest of the world caught a cold”, and stock markets crashed across the world in the wake of the Wall Street Crash, plunging the world into the Great Depression .
There have been even larger crashes since 1929 as well, which have not had the same extent of effect. This is mainly because the share market is only one relatively minor avenue for speculation and even a total wipe out on the share market has only a partial impact.