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Black Thursday Stock Market Crash

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In early 1928 the Dow Jones Average went from a low of 191 to a high of 300 in December of 1928 and peaked at 381 in September of 1929. 1929…) It was anticipated that the increases in earnings and dividends would continue. (1929…) Price to earnings ratio's rose from 10 to 12 to 20 and higher for the market's favorite stocks. (1929…) Observers believed that stock market prices in the first 6 months of 1929 were high, while others saw them to be cheap. (1929…) On October 3rd, the Dow Jones Average began to drop, declining through out the week of October 14th. (1929…) On the night of Monday, October 21st, 1929, margin calls were heavy and Dutch and German calls came in to sell overnight for the Tuesday morning opening. (1929…) On Tuesday …show more content…

Meanwhile, the overall price level dropped by about 1/3. Many people blamed the crash for the economical collapse. Some people held responsible were President Hoover, brokers, bankers, and businessmen. The cause of the depression cannot be linked to one individual or even a group of people. It is also unlikely that the crash of the market would have been large enough to lead the US economy into the depression and to sustain the downward spiral in business activity. (1929…) Why People Invested in the Stock Market During 1929, people invested in the stock market for 5 major reasons. The first was that the market was considered an easy way to get rich, quick. Although, about 4 million Americans, a small amount, invested in the stock market at one time. The constant influx of new investors coming in and old investors moving out ensured that new money was always flowing around. (1929…) Another reason was higher wages. This meant that everyone in America had extra money to put into savings or invest in the market. The 3rd reason was that at this time, money was made more readily available, from banks, at a lower interest rate to more people. Some economist debated that this influenced the stock market, it is conceivable that people took loans to buy more stock. (1929…) The fourth reason is that industry was over-producing, in anticipation of selling

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