It then enters a period of volatility and drops to 8,920.70 after markets open following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The recession ends in November 2002 after a period of war-related uncertainty. The largest single-day drop, percentage-wise, that the Dow has had occurred when the market crashed on Oct. 19, 1987, Black Monday. Stock market gains since the 2008 financial crisis were mediocre in volume.
- Many 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.
- Some of these Third Party Funds are offered through Titan Global Technologies LLC.
- Certain Third Party Funds that are available on Titan’s platform are interval funds.
Intraday highs show the peak value during the trading session, but the “record close” at 45,631.74 on August 22 is the official all-time high most investors track. The Dow Jones stock market index (also known as the Dow or DIJA) tracks 30 large, blue-chip companies on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. After the Dow Jones Transportation Index, it is the second oldest U.S. stock market index still in use.
References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. The Dow sees the end of a long bull market on Jan. 14, 2000, in part due to the strength of the Internet business and the subsequent bursting of the dot-com bubble. It then falls on March 7, 2000, rebounds to 11,124.83 on April 25, and falls again to 9,973.46 by March 14, 2001, beginning the 2001 recession.
Shares for most of the firms tracked by Dow rose in value on Friday, led by Intel (4.7%), IBM (2.8%) and Home Depot (2.6%), while shares for Walmart, Boeing and JPMorgan Chase fell slightly. Different indices reflect different trading styles, short-term Nasdaq rallies mirror day trading vs swing trading strategies in practice. From the Great Depression to COVID-19, but it has always bounced back to set new records. The August 2025 record is just the latest proof of that resilience. Even so, the gains posted by Ambrx Biopharma (AMAM) in Friday’s session are unusual and particularly eye-catching. The stock soared to the tune of a hardly believable 1007% after the company announced pleasing results from the mid-stage testing of its breast cancer drug ARX788.
Record Highs Set in 2018
By Jan. 20, it closed at 15,766.74, as investors panicked over plummeting oil prices, the devaluation of the yuan, and turmoil in China’s stock market. But this robust start was not indicative of extreme volatility the index would face as the year progressed. Crypto trader First, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine saw gas prices spike sharply.
Timeline of Key Milestones
The number of companies included in the index increased to 20 in 1916 and then to the current number, 30, in 1928. Since then, the Dow has remained among the most frequently discussed and commonly tracked equities indexes.
How the Dow Jones all-time high compares to stock market leaps throughout history
Given its large-cap focus, the roster of companies included in the Dow fails to include companies of other sizes. Many 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. These changes are not done often to ensure the index’s stability and continuity. Previously, the Dow had fallen from 11,723 in January 2000 to 9,389 in March 2001, dropping 20% (from 20,520 to 16,434 points, inflation-adjusted). The bout of inflation that followed the COVID-19 pandemic led to another sharp sell-off in 2022. Between Jan. 7, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2022, the Dow declined about 21% from 36,231.66 to 28,725.51.
📊 Top 5 Dow Jones Record Closes (Nov 2024 – Aug
Margin credit rose from 12% of NYSE market value in 1917 to 20% in 1929. 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. As such, point moves are a way to measure the relative change in the index’s value. That said, when comparing the value of the DJIA over time, many financial sites, as we have done above, use an inflation-adjustment calculator such as the U.S.
- Investment losses are possible, including the potential loss of all amounts invested, including principal.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average, also known as the Dow or DJIA, tracks 30 large, well-known companies that trade on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.
- The Dow’s history underscores the inevitable volatility of the stock market.
- It’s one of the most-watched indicators of the stock market’s overall health.
- The S&P 500, Nasdaq, Nikkei, and DAX all set records in 2025 too, fueled by strong tech earnings and hopes of lower rates.
- The Dow’s new record above 45,600 in August 2025 comes from a mix of strong earnings, cooling inflation, and investor optimism about future Fed policy.
Information provided by Titan Support is for informational and general educational purposes only and is not investment or financial advice. The highest intraday level was just above 45,100 on December 4, 2024, before closing at 45,014.04. The highest closing value ever for the Dow Jones is 45,014.04, set on December 4, 2024. The Dow has hit milestone after milestone—climbing from 1,000 points to over 45,000 in less than 50 years. Journalist Charles Dow and his business partner, Edward Jones, established the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896 with 12 companies in the industrial sector.
Following the Great Recession, it took about five years for the stock market to recover. The Dow returned to its pre-recession highs in March 2013. Unlike the S&P 500 or Nasdaq (which are weighted by company size), the Dow uses a special math trick called the “index divisor.” This lets it account for stock splits and changes in the Dow 30 lineup. Stocks with higher prices (like UnitedHealth or Goldman Sachs) have more impact on the index than lower-priced stocks, even if they’re smaller companies. The Dow Jones is a price-weighted index—this means the 30 companies with the highest stock prices move the Dow the most, not the biggest by market cap. The Dow Jones always bounces back—even after historic crashes.
That means companies with higher stock prices move the Dow more, even if they aren’t the largest by market value. Please refer to Titan’s Program Brochure for important additional information. Before investing, you should consider your investment objectives and any fees charged by Titan.
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. 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. The highest Dow Jones Industrial Average close is 45,631.74, set on August 22, 2025. This surpassed the previous record of 45,014.04 from December 2024.
What Is the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) All-Time High?
See the top 10 highest closing values in Dow Jones history, including the record-breaking 45,014.04 set on December 4, 2024. A record high doesn’t mean “buy now” or “panic sell”—it’s just one milestone in the market’s long journey. Since the Great Depression, 2007 to 2008 has been the most dramatic period for the DJIA. The market fell more than 50% in just a year and a half because of subprime mortgage and credit crisis that kicked off the Great Recession.
The Dow’s all-time high reflects strong tech earnings, cooling inflation, and expectations of future Fed rate cuts. When the stock market crashed on October 19, 1987 — a date known colloquially as Black Monday — the Dow experienced its largest percentage drop in history, a whopping 22.6% decrease in a single day. The Dow hit record highs in 2024–2025 thanks to a perfect storm of strong earnings, lower inflation, and huge gains from mega-cap tech stocks.
