Statistics on the Dow follow:
- As of May 24, 2006, the Dow was at 11,117.32, up 3.73% year-to-date
- The Dow closed 2005 at 10,717.50, down .61% for the year
- The Dow closed at a six-year high of 11,642.65 on May 10, 2006, 80.33 points, or 0.7% away from its all-time closing high.
- The Dow’s all-time high came on January 14, 2000, when it closed at 11,722.98
- The Dow has crossed the 11,000 mark 24 times since it originally topped that figure on May 3, 1999
- It took 99 years for the Dow to reach 5,000 (November 21, 1995). It only took an additional three years and four months to reach 10,000 (March 18, 1999).
- The largest single-day percentage drop in the Dow came on October 19, 1987, when it fell 22%
- The Dow’s 13% plummet on October 28, 1929 – and additional 12% fall on the 29th – signalled the start of the Great Depression. The Dow did not fully recover to pre-Depression levels until 1954.
- 1931 was the worst performing year for the Dow, when it lost 52.67%
- 1915 was the best performing year for the Dow, when it gained 81.66%
Did you know?
- The Dow was manually calculated by Arthur “Pop” Harris every hour on the hour from 1923 to 1963, before the advent of computers ?
- The Dow is the second longest-running stock market index, the first being the Dow Jones Transportation Average
- General Electric is the only original member of the Dow that is still included in the Average (though it has been dropped and added to the Average twice)
- The Dow started with 12 stocks in 1896 and was eventually expanded to 30 stocks in 1928
Dow Jones Indexes recently concluded a “Man and Woman on the Street” survey, asking 110 people from each of the world’s major financial centers - New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt and Hong Kong – about their thoughts on the Dow. Results of the survey follow:
- 78% of those surveyed had heard of the Dow
- Half accurately described the Dow as an index
- One-quarter could quote within 100 points where the Dow was currently trading
