Dow Jones History: Top Highs and Lows Since 1929

Traders are increasingly optimistic on the U.S. stock market and economy, according to new data from Charles Schwab. Meanwhile, bearish sentiment fell by 0.6 percentage points to 26.2%, also below its historical average of 31.0% for the 16th straight week. Bullish sentiment rose to 44.3% for the week ending Feb. 21, more than the 42.2% in the previous reading, and above the historical average of 37.5% for the 16th straight week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, also known as the DJIA or the Dow, is a stock market index that tracks 30 large, publicly owned blue-chip companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq. Journalist forex broker listings Charles Dow created the index in 1896 to serve as a proxy for the overall U.S. economy. After hitting its all-time high in Jan. 2022, the Dow continued to fall as markets were impacted by inflation and the war in Ukraine.

The Motley Fool reaches millions of people every month through our premium investing solutions, free guidance and market analysis on Fool.com, top-rated podcasts, and non-profit The Motley Fool Foundation. While a market index itself cannot directly be invested in, you can invest in the Dow through index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) such as the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (DIA). Investors in funds that track the Dow gain exposure to all the stocks listed on the index.

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). Both the Nikkei and the broader Topix have been standout outperformers in Asia Pacific, up more than 10% so far this year after surging more than 25% in 2023 — their respective best annual gains in at least a decade. Shares of Moderna were up more than 5% in the premarket after the vaccine maker posted a greater-than-expected revenue for the fourth quarter. The company’s top line registered at $2.81 billion, while analysts polled by LSEG had forecast a print of $2.50 billion. Moderna also reported a surprise profit, boosted in part by deferred revenue. The number of individuals in the U.S. filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more-than-expected last week, suggesting strength in the labor market.

The S&P 500 surged to new highs on Thursday after chip giant Nvidia reported much stronger-than-expected quarterly results, lifting the broader market and tech sector. You can calculate DJIA’s 1 month return from DJIA’s value today and DJIA’s value 30 days ago. You can also do the same calculation for yesterday and DJIA’s value 31 days ago etc. If you do this calculation for each days, you will get a curve of DJIA’s 1 month yield. The same applies to other yield periods from 3 months to 5 years.This chart shows the three and the five year yield curve in the past 5 years.Treshold marked with red shows 0% return. Trading is typically carried out in an open outcry auction, or over an electronic network such as CME’s Globex platform.

He said, however, that stocks could still drop if economic growth eventually becomes priced into higher bond yields. On March 29, 1999, the average closed at 10,006.78, its first close above 10,000. This prompted a celebration on the trading floor, complete with party hats.[54] Total gains for the decade exceeded 315%; from 2,753.20 to 11,497.12, which equates to 12.3% annually. Furthermore, critics believe that factoring only the price of a stock in the calculation does not accurately reflect a company, as much as considering a company’s market cap would. In this manner, a company with a higher stock price but a smaller market cap would have more weight than a company with a smaller stock price but a larger market cap, which would poorly reflect the true size of a company. The DJIA launched in 1896 with just 12 companies, primarily in the industrial sector.

Limitations of the DJIA

The value of the index can also be calculated as the sum of the stock prices of the companies included in the index, divided by a factor, which is approximately 0.153 as of February 2024[update]. The factor is changed whenever a constituent company undergoes a stock split so that the value of the index is unaffected by the stock split. In the early 20th century, the performance of industrial companies was typically tied to the overall growth rate in the economy. 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 indicates a slowing economy.

The previous high was recorded just a day prior, when the index ended the trading day at 36,585.06. Shares of Vietnamese electric vehicle company VinFast slipped more than 2% after the fourth quarter report showed widening losses. European stocks rallied to a record close Thursday as investors cheered solid economic data. «The balance of risk was tilted towards the reaction that we’re seeing today, which is that there wasn’t going to be anything worse that was going to come out for the market yesterday.» Moreover, the stock is still trading at a «modest discount» to its historical average. Phillip Colmar of MRB Partners noted equities are benefiting from earnings growth and firmer economic activity than was expected.

Nvidia rallies to all-time high on blowout earnings, boosts chip sector

It reached a higher level the next day, at 36,952.65, but closed below its all-time high. “Powell was understandably hesitant to declare victory with regard to avoiding a recession,” Josh Jamner, investment strategy analyst at ClearBridge Investments, wrote in emailed comments. “But the lack of pushback on easing financial conditions as inflation continues its trend lower should be enough to continue to support the Santa Claus rally for the time being,” Jamner said. Salesforce has been the leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software for 10 consecutive years, and the CRM market is forecast to grow by 14% annually through 2030. Similarly, Microsoft is the leader in enterprise software-as-a-service and operates the second-largest cloud computing platform; those markets are also projected to grow by 14% annually through the end of the decade.

1. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is one of the many gauges of stock market performance.
2. Other Third Party Funds are offered to advisory clients by Titan.
3. Investing comes with risks, that’s why the SEC and other regulators ensure all companies and investors follow financial regulations and that individuals are protected.
4. On the other hand, the firm’s flash PMI for services fell to 51.3 from 52.5 between January and February.
5. Analyst Timothy Wojs accompanied the move by lifting his target price to $120 from $105, implying that the stock could rally 31% from here.
6. Over time, as the focus of the index shifted from measuring the performance of the heavy industrial sector to gauging the health of the entire U.S. stock market, the number of stocks in the index expanded.

Initially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was an index of 12 companies. Most were industrial companies such as General Electric (GE 0.82%). Over time, as the focus of the index shifted from measuring the performance of the heavy industrial sector to gauging the health of the entire U.S. stock market, the number of stocks in the index expanded. In the midst of a recession, the Dow has two milestone days of gains. On Oct. 13, the Dow gains 936 points after governments and central banks pour money into the markets to jumpstart the global economy. Two weeks later, on Oct. 28, the Dow rises 889 on optimism that the Fed would cut the interest rate.

That’s especially true if you’re seeking to invest in blue chip companies, which are generally the most stable and profitable on the market. While the recent decade has shown strong economic growth, leading to plenty of record highs for the Dow, there have been significant plunges as well, both over periods of time and fxdd review in dramatic single-day or single-moment drops. The Dow started 2022 with a flourish, breaking closing records in the first two trading days of the year. The most recent record closing occurred on Jan. 4, when the index closed at 36,799.65, blowing past the all-time high closing of 36,585.06 it had just a day before.

Dow scores its highest close in history. Here’s what that means in the big picture.

The one before that came on the final trading day of 2021, when Dow closed at 36,488.63 on Dec. 29, 2021, smashing the record it set on Nov. 8, 2021. The Dow witnessed a sharp decline in the end of November over fears of inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic, before resuming its quest to break more all-time high milestones. The firm’s quarterly Trader Sentiment Survey found 53% of retail investors are bullish on the stock market in the first quarter of 2024. That’s up from 32% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the highest percentage since the survey began in 2021.

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As with all stock prices, the prices of the constituent stocks and consequently the value of the index itself are affected by the performance of the respective companies as well as macroeconomic factors. For much of the U.S. stock market’s history, the highs, lows, bull market runs, and shocking crashes have been captured best for the public and many investors by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. However, returns have varied dramatically between past bull markets, so investors would do better to benchmark against a different metric. Specifically, the Dow Jones returned about 9% annually over the past four decades, and its performance will likely be similar over the next four decades. On that day, it closed at 7,286.27, a 37.8% decline from its peak. No one knew if a new bull market had begun until the Dow hit a higher low on March 11, 2003, closing at 7,524.06.

It took almost four years for the market to bottom out at that time. In early 1981, the index broke above 1,000 several times, but then retreated. After closing above 2,000 in January 1987,[43] the largest one-day percentage drop occurred on Black Monday, October 19, 1987, when the average fell 22.61%. As the economy changes over time, so does the composition of the index. A component of the Dow may be dropped when a company becomes less relevant to current trends of the economy, to be replaced by a new name that better reflects the shift. For instance, a company may be removed from the index when its market capitalization drops because of financial distress.

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Just five stocks — Coca-Cola, Intel, Nike, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Verizon Communications —hovered in negative territory in the 30-stock index. Verizon was the worst performer and slipped 1% after a nationwide cellphone outage impacted customers. A premium for immediate versus later delivery is typically a sign that the oil market is tightening, Staunovo wrote in a note to clients Thursday. Although American Woodmark has rallied an eye-whopping 66% in the last twelve months, Wojs is firm in his belief that there’s still upside ahead.