If you are a fan of large, round numbers, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has one for you: The benchmark US stock index hit 20,000 for the first time during early trading today. That’s good for a gain of around 20% over the past year, with the rally really picking up steam since the Nov. 8 US election. (The index is up nearly 10% since election day.)
If you are a fan of large, round numbers, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has one for you: The benchmark US stock index hit 20,000 for the first time during early trading today. That’s good for a gain of around 20% over the past year, with the rally really picking up steam since the Nov. 8 US election. (The index is up nearly 10% since election day.)
The Dow, which launched in 1896 and first reached the 100 level around 20 years later, is crossing big, round-number milestones more quickly these days, since that’s easier to do as the index gets bigger. The latest 1,000-point gain took only two months.
The Dow gets a lot of attention considering it’s an unrepresentative jumble of just 30 companies. That’s because of history, and also because it features many household names, including Apple $AAPL, Boeing $BA, and Disney $DIS. The companies in the Dow now have a collective market value of about $5.6 trillion, which pales in comparison to the more widely tracked S&P 500 index, which has a market value of $19.5 trillion.
Donald Trump’s contribution to Dow 20,000 is clear. Goldman Sachs $GS contributed around one-third of the initial rally after the Dow crossed the 19,000 mark. The investment bank’s share price climbed as Trump appointed several high-level current and former Goldman staff to his cabinet and promised to reduce financial regulation. Also, the president-elect’s spending plans have stoked inflation expectations, leading to higher interest rates that should further pad the bank’s profits.
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