This Day In Market History: Iraq Invades Kuwait

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened? On this day in 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait.

Where The Market Was: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 2,864.60 and the S&P 500 traded at 351.48.

What Else Was Going On In The World? In 1990, the skeleton of “Sue” the T-Rex was discovered in South Dakota, the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. Tim Berners-Lee published a proposal to create a World Wide Web consisting of hypertext, web pages, browsers and web servers. Average monthly rent in the U.S. was $465.

Catalyst For The First Gulf War: Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein ordered Iraqi troops to invade oil-rich Kuwait at around 2 a.m. local time, and within hours they had captured Kuwait City and gained control of about 20% of global oil reserves.

In the three days that followed, the Dow dropped 6 % on fears about the impact the geopolitical tensions would have on the economy.

Within four days of the invasion, the United Nations Security Council banned all global trade with Iraq. On Aug. 9, the U.S. launched Operation Desert Shield to drive Hussein out of Kuwait. By Feb. 28, 1991, a ceasefire was declared and Iraq accepted the terms of surrender on April 6, 1991. Hussein remained in control of Iraq.