October 3, 2006
Dow hits all-time high
The Dow hit an all time trading high today :
The Dow Jones industrial average set an all-time high on Tuesday, surpassing the previous record made in 2000, as investors bet that sliding crude oil prices will underpin corporate profits even as economic growth slows.
UPDATE: Finally — the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed today at an all-time high of 11,758.95, beating a previous high of 11,750.28 reached on Jan. 14, 2000. Essentially, this means we’ve finally put the crash of the first Internet bubble behind us, at least as far as this widely used benchmark is concerned. It also means if you had invested $10,000 in the Dow companies on January 14, 2000, you’d finally be back in the black, six and a half years later. Ouch.
UPDATE 2: Of course, not every stock index has recovered. For example, the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite closed at 2,243.65 today — less than half its all time high of 5,132,52, achieved on March 10th, 2000.
UPDATE 3: IndexFundFan points out that the hypothetical Dow breakeven point I referred to in my first update would actually have come well before yesterday, thanks to dividend distributions. That’s a great point. See his post for more details.
Hi Joe, you need to take dividend distributions into account, so investors in the DOW are really not back to square one, but is up about 13% for the 6 1/2 years. See my post
http://www.indextown.com/archives/2006/10/04/dow-at-new-high-and-dividend-distributions/