Dow Sets All-Time Record

The recession from 1973 to 1975 also led to a falloff for the Dow, which dropped 45% from its 1,051 peak in 1973 to just under 600 in 1974 (about 7,486 and 3,871 points, respectively, inflation-adjusted). In the autumn, it began to consistently close above 35,000 points, and by the last week in December 2021, it surpassed 36,000 points. In the bond market, treasuries saw modest strength after moving lower over the two previous sessions.

Dow 5000 to 10,000: 1,224 days

The cryptocurrency’s price has recently broken out from a pennant pattern, signaling a continuation of its strong bullish move. Macy’s shares were down about 4.5% in recent trading and is now down about 23% since the start of 2024. Macy’s did, however, release preliminary results for the third quarter on Monday. It said revenue declined just over 2% year-over-year to $4.74 billion, below the $4.88 billion analysts had expected, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha. The company in September agreed to a $40 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over charges that it manipulated clinical trial data related to its Alzheimer’s disease drug. That could continue, according to Oppenheimer, with the Federal Reserve expected to continue cutting interest rates and investor appetite for crypto increasing.

Thus, a one-point move in any of the component stocks will move the index by an identical number of points. The DJIA is the second-oldest U.S. market index after the Dow Jones Transportation Average. The DJIA was designed to serve as a proxy for the health of the broader U.S. economy. Often referred to simply as the Dow, it is one of the most-watched stock market indexes in the world. While the Dow includes a range of companies, all can be described as blue chip companies with consistently stable earnings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a stock market index that tracks 30 large, publicly owned blue-chip companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq.

Stock market today: Indexes slide as tech sell-off ends 7-day winning streak

It began on Jan. 4, when the Dow closed 160 points lower as investors worried about a slowdown in China’s economic growth. The index closed above 23,000 on Oct. 18, 2017; slightly more than a month later, it broke 24,000. The Dow had two streaks lasting more than 10 days, which had not occurred since 1959. The Dow tracks 30 large, publicly owned blue-chip companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. The selection is not based on strict quantitative criteria but rather on the decisions of the editors of The Wall Street Journal. Companies are chosen based on their reputation, growth, and relevance to the economy, with the aim of reflecting the overall health and trends of the industrial sector of the U.S. economy.

This means that stocks in the index with higher share prices have greater influence, even if they are smaller companies overall in terms of market value. This also means that stock splits can impact the index, while they would not for a market cap-weighted index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% to an all-time closing high for the second consecutive session, while the S&P gained for the sixth straight day, closing 0.3% higher after hitting an intraday record early Monday. The Nasdaq Composite tacked on 0.3% and is nearing record highs of its own. Stocks, which were coming off a winning week, have resumed their post-election rally as investors digest news that President-elect Donald Trump nominated Wall Street veteran Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary. The Dow started 2022 with a flourish, breaking closing records in the first two trading days of the year.

Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, dipped 2.2 basis points to 4.410 percent. Housing stocks also showed a significant move to the upside, driving the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index up by 1.6 percent. The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index for November was downwardly revised to 71.8 from the preliminary reading of 73.0. Target, which reports its quarterly results next week, was also rising, along with other tokenexus retailers like Dollar General and Dollar Tree.

1991 Recession

These latest changes mark just the 53rd adjustment to the DJIA since its inception in 1896 and highlight a shift toward companies that are more relevant in their respective industries. The Dow Jones Industrial Average achieved a new all-time high close of 37,557.92 on Dec. 19. Despite the impressive return, the Dow is still underperforming the Nasdaq Composite review a girl’s guide to personal finance and the S&P 500 year to date. The Dow has also underperformed the other two major indexes over the last five-year and 10-year time periods.

That cemented the relationship between the Dow’s performance and the overall economy. Even today, for many investors, a strong-performing Dow equals a strong economy, while a weak-performing Dow generally means a slowing economy. The stark contrast in valuation shows that premium investors are willing to pay for growth right now. And it also shows that, despite a strong year-to-date return for the Dow, the index is still a fairly good price.

Investors worried that China’s yuan devaluation and the uncertainty over the Fed’s rate increase would push the index further downward. A November streak occurred after Donald Trump’s presidential win on Nov. 8. This high occurred only 42 trading sessions after closing above 19,000. That is the second-fastest rise in U.S. history (currently, the record is 24 sessions to go from 10,000 to 21,000 in 1999). The Dow responded with new highs throughout the latter part of 2019, even though trade negotiations had broken down until November. It hit a milestone on July 11, closing above 27,000, and then another on Nov. 15, closing above 28,000 (in the chart below, milestones are noted).

• On Monday, Sept. 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers Holding, Inc. (an investment bank) declared bankruptcy.
• The Dow Jones Industrial average has doubled every 8.1 years, or 2,969 days, since 1983.
• We’ve included a few key shocks to the stock markets along these timelines in addition to the presidents who were in office.
• Because of the price-weighted calculation method, a $1 change in the price of a stock in the DJIA doesn’t equate to one point in the index since that depends on the Dow divisor at the time.

Only three days traded more than 200 million shares, a level similar to the late 1990s. Of the 26 records set that year, 17 occurred after the presidential election. This was the Dow’s third consecutive trading day with a record close and the fourth record closing in just two months. The previous high was recorded just a day prior, when the python math libraries index ended the trading day at 36,585.06. In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance on Friday.

The Dow, relying on share prices rather than market capitalization, passed 40,000 for the first time on May 16 after Walmart’s shares reached an all-time high. The index passed the threshold again the following day before reaching its all-time intraday high as trading opened the next week. Dow’s record-setting day follows inflation falling to its lowest point in a year, increasing the possibility of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates. Consumer prices also fell month-over-month for the first time since 2020. The market responded positively to wholesale prices increasing 0.2% last month, higher than projections of 0.1%, according to FactSet. The S&P 500 index and Nasdaq have similarly peaked at record highs this year as technology stocks like Nvidia have swelled—though Nvidia is not a Dow Jones component.

Super Micro Computer (SMCI) shares surged 16% as the server maker and Nvidia partner continues to soar following the release of a plan a week ago to avoid a delisting by the Nasdaq. The stock, which had declined for several months as the company faced significant accounting issues, has more than doubled over the past six trading sessions. The index had three nine-day runs, last occurring in 1955 (when there were four nine-day stretches). The Dow continuously moved higher eight months in a row (the last occurrence of this was in 1995). The longest bull market in history lasted about 11 years, starting in March 2009 and ending in February 2020.