Routs How current crisis compares to past sell-offs

Donald Trump's escalating trade war has plunged global financial markets into their steepest rout since the spread of the Covid pandemic five years ago.

- Richard Partington

Drawing parallels with the 1929 Wall Street crash and the ensuing 1930s Great Depression, the US president's "liberation day" tariff plan now has leading economists warning of a global recession.

More than $5tn (£4tn) has been wiped off the value of global stock markets since Trump announced his plans on Wednesday evening last week, with investors braced for more volatility as Washington appears unwilling to back down.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500, one of the benchmark US stock indices, is close to a bear market - when an index drops more than 20% from its most recent peak - one of the biggest market slumps in history.

Here is how the current sell-off compares with other major crises.

1929 Wall Street crash

The biggest setback to the global economy of the modern industrial age, the Wall Street Crash came after a frenzy of speculative share buying. This created a bubble in the market, with the subsequent collapse triggering the global Great Depression of the 1930s. This hit Germany especially hard, because of its reliance on US loans, and contributed to the rise of Hitler and the circumstances that led to the second world war.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 11% on 24 October 1929, which became known as "Black Thursday". A 13% tumble followed on the Monday, with another 11% drop the day after that. The downward spiral took until June 1932 to bottom out, by which point the companies on the New York stock exchange had lost 90% of their value.