After recovering from its Great Depression level, the Dow continued to be affected by several recessionary periods and crises leading up to the 2009 downturn. 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). On July 3, the Dow hit a new high when the Trump administration announced it would resume trade negotiations with China, averting additional tariffs (taxes on imports). The Dow Jones Industrial Average is one of the many gauges of stock market performance.
The Dow fell 17% in three months, from 2,864.60 on Aug. 2 to 2,365.10 on Oct. 11, 1990. It beat its January high, rising to 9,093.24 by the close of the day. The Senate reintroduced the bailout as the Troubled Asset Relief Program on Oct. 3. The Dow gained 3,472.56 points during 2013, higher than any prior year on record. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision.
- The Dow experiences its largest single-day percentage drop of 22.6% on Oct. 19,1987.
- After two and a half months worth of several attempts, the Dow finally closed above 35,000 on Friday, July 23, 2021.
- First, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine saw gas prices spike sharply.
Wall Street generally considers a bear market in session when multiple broad market indices have a downturn of 20% or more in value lasting for at least 2 months. In recent years, investors have become accustomed to record highs for the Dow, but there have also been a few pronounced drops. That said, we’ve never seen a fall as dramatic as the stock market crash of 1929, after which the Dow lost nearly 90% of its value over the course of three years.
List of 1,000-point milestones by number of trading days
The index fund bears a below-average expense ratio of 0.16%, meaning the annual fee on a $10,000 portfolio would be $16. Since the Dow tracks just 30 large-cap U.S. companies, some critics argue that it is too narrow to represent the state of the overall U.S. economy. Given its large-cap focus, the roster of companies included in the Dow fails to include companies of other sizes. Most market observers think the S&P 500 is a much better representation of the economy, as it includes 500 companies and draws more widely from different sectors.
This history of the Dow since the Great Depression demonstrates how stock market fluctuations reflect the natural stages of the business cycle. 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 index ended the trading day at 36,585.06. Learn all about how the classification https://www.fx770.net/ system that separates the stock market into 11 sectors can help investors understand the different sectors of the economy. In 2020, the Dow set a record high of 28,868.80 on Jan. 2 and another record a week later. After experiencing three of the biggest drops in history during the spring of 2020, it broke 30,000 on Nov. 24 and ended the year at a record high of 30,606.48.
For starters, the Dow Jones we know is not a person — but you already knew that. Named for its two founders, the Dow Jones is a stock market index, just like the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq. The Dow posted its all-time high during intraday trading on Feb. 23, 2024, reaching a peak of 39,282.28 points. The highest close occurred the same day when the index closed at 39,131.53 points. The peak was led in part by a relaxation of concerns that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates high because of inflation, thus dampening economic activity. Of the 26 records set that year, 17 occurred after the presidential election.
Record Highs Set in 2017
Any historical returns, expected returns, or probability projections are hypothetical in nature and may not reflect actual future performance. Account holdings and other information provided are for illustrative purposes only and are not to be considered investment recommendations. The content on this website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a comprehensive description of Titan’s investment advisory services. At recent prices, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF returned 473% over the last two decades, or 9.1% annually. Additionally, it was slightly less volatile than the broader S&P 500, as evidenced by its 10-year beta of 0.95.
That correction was more than 16% lower than its all-time high set in May of the same year, putting the index into a correction but not a bear market. Investors worried that China’s yuan devaluation and the uncertainty over the Fed’s rate increase would push the index further downward. The Dow suffered a market correction between August 2015 and April 19, 2016, leading to a 2016 downturn.
2012 (0 record closes)
The Federal Reserve began buying banks’ mortgages as they recognized that banks did not have adequate liquidity. 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. 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.
Founded in 1993, The Motley Fool is a financial services company dedicated to making the world smarter, happier, and richer. 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. 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.
2009 Recession
Information provided by Titan Support is for informational and general educational purposes only and is not investment or financial advice. Stay informed on the most impactful business and financial news with analysis from our team. Get stock recommendations, portfolio guidance, and more from The Motley Fool’s premium services. Alternatively, investors could take a more conservative approach and buy shares of the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA -0.56%).
The average closed at 2,999.75 on Monday, July 16, 1990, and closed unchanged the following day;[17] however, it would take until April 17 of the next year for the Dow to finally close above 3,000. The easiest way to invest in the Dow may be to buy shares in State Street Global Advisors’ SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust, which trades under the ticker symbol DIA. The index closed above 18,000 on Dec. 23, and then closed its high for the year at 18,053.71 on Dec. 26. The chart below shows four of those closing records, as they increase by the thousand. The Dow was volatile in 2015 because it was based on just a few companies. Record-low interest rates allowed firms such as Apple and IBM to borrow billions to buy back shares.
(14 record closes)
On Aug. 17, 1998, Russia devalued the ruble and defaulted on its bonds. By Aug. 31, the Dow had fallen 13%, from 8,714.64 on Aug. 18 to 7,539.06 on Aug. 31. The Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund almost collapsed, threatening to push its banking investors into bankruptcy. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan convinced them to support the hedge fund, averting further disaster.
It reaches its lowest point of 6,594.44 on March 5, 2009 during a bear market. The 2008 stock market crash was more dramatic than any other downturn in U.S. history. It took almost four years for the market to bottom out at that time. Like most other stock market indices, the Dow undergoes periods of general increase and general declines or stagnation. A bull market is a term denoting a period of price increases, while a bear market denotes a period of declines.