The Stock Market Crashes With the renewed consumer economy, the Dow Jones Industrial was reaching unbelievable highs Dow Jones Industrial Average…an average of stock prices of major industries had climbed to 381 by September 3rd 1928 Prices for many stocks soared far above their real value in terms of the company’s earnings and assets

But within a month, the stocks started to suddenly fall…by a lot October 23rd, it dropped 21 points in an hour Then Thursday, Oct. 24th, worried investors started to sell and the stock prices fell some more Those who had bought GE stoat $400 a share and sold it for $283 a share

Bankers and political leaders told the country everything was going to be okay

But within a few days, prices were falling again…and investors raced to get their money out of the stock market

The Great Crash The next day, Oct. 29th, was known as Black Tuesday because so many shares were sold that the market collapsed Average was 4-8 million shares a day earlier in the year Black Tuesday, 16.4 million shares were sold

The collapse continued into November and resulted in the loss of over $30 billion High in september was 381….low was 198.7 by November 13 In theory the Great Crash was part of the nation’s business cycle, periods in which the economy grows, then contracts

Some families lost everything…and when brokers and banks called in their loans, people couldn’t put up the cash Mostly wealthy families were hurt the worst….for those whose entire wealth did not depend on the stock market, life went on as much before By 1929—4 million people out of a population of 120 million had invested in the stock market They were the first to suffer from the Crash…but it soon affected millions who had never owned a single share of stock

The Crash triggered a much wider, long-term crisis called the Great Depression A severe economic decline that lasted from 1929 until American entry into WWII in 1941 Millions of Americans lost their jobs, farms, and homes It would have a ripple affect that affected the world