Wednesday, 23 October 1929: New York Stock Market Drops 6.3%

New York:  

THE STOCK MARKET crashES – THE Nyse DROPS 6.3% in THE second-largest TRADING day on record.  Over 6.3 million shares trade.  The loss is valued at $3-4 billion.  The market opens well after yesterday's uptick, with several bellwether stocks recording gains.  Then mid-afternoon, a wave of selling hits automotive equipment and radio stocks.  As the afternoon grinds on and the selling shows no sign of abating, traders and investors -- already nervous after the general market downturn of late -- lose their nerve and start dumping other stocks -- everything -- for whatever they can get, sometimes even below price.  In the final hour, the market completely collapses, in what one article calls "a new and wholly unexpected avalanche of selling."  About $50 million in value is melting away per minute at the end.  At one point, a clutch of banking executives are reported to be conferring on the front steps of the New York Stock Exchange on ways to support the market.  But it remains to be seen if they can do anything about it

Elsewhere: 

Budapest:  Prime Minister Istvan Bethlen de Bethlen, speaking to Parliament, announces that from now on, anti-semitic disturbances in Hungary's schools and universities will be met with a strong police response. Police will even enter classrooms where disturbances are taking place if necessary.  Bethlen's statement is in response to a spate of anti-Jewish unrest around the country of late.

China:  Nationalist government forces capture the town of Yencheng in Honan province.  The opposing forces are reported to number 300,000.