As of August 2025, the Dow is up +9.5% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 has gained +13.2% and the Nasdaq +15.4%. Tech-heavy Nasdaq leads global markets thanks to strong performance in AI and semiconductor stocks. A record high doesn’t mean the market will only go up or that it’s time to panic. The Dow tracks 30 large, publicly owned blue-chip companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq.
Decoding the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan convinced them to support the hedge fund, averting further disaster. 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 highest closing value ever for the Dow is 45,631.74, set on August 22, 2025.
Top 10 Highest Dow Jones Closing Values in History
This high occurred only 42 trading sessions after closing above 19,000. That is the second-fastest rise in U.S. history (currently, the record is 24 sessions to go from 10,000 to 21,000 in 1999). The Dow Jones Industrial Average (the Dow) is an index of the 30 top-performing U.S. companies.
It was the largest amount since 2007, right before the stock market crashed. 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 Dow Jones hitting 45,631.74 in August 2025 shows how strong U.S. markets remain, with tech earnings, lower inflation, and Fed policy fueling record highs. For long-term investors, these milestones are reminders to stay disciplined.
Record Highs Set in 2017
The world is getting smaller and large corporations are playing in several different sandboxes. Many of the companies on the Dow make the majority of their profits in other countries. Shareholders may see the benefit of their successes, but the average US citizen will never be the wiser. It isn’t exactly representative of the whole of the economy the way it once was. The number of publicly traded companies is simply too vast. In this article, we are going to explain “the Dow Jones” because, after all, you should never invest in a business that you don’t understand.
Consumer prices rose 3.4% from last April – a decline from March’s 3.5% annual increase. The CME FedWatch Tool shows investors still expect the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates twice by the end of the year. The DJIA remains one of the most closely watched indicators of economic health. It reflects the performance of major U.S. companies and can offer insight into broader economic trends. As the Dow continues to evolve, the question what is the highest the Dow Jones has ever been may continue to change, as the index has the potential to break new records in the future. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) made history by surpassing 40,000 points for the first time on May 16, 2024, hitting an intraday peak of 40,051.05 points.
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). In 2019, the Dow hit two milestones and set 22 record closes.
Critics also believe that factoring only the price of a stock in the calculation does not accurately reflect a company, as much as considering a company’s market cap would. It is simply a value that is calculated via the total sum of the share prices of the stocks included in the index that is divided by the Dow Divisor (more on that later). We’ve included a few key shocks to the stock markets along these timelines in addition to the presidents who were in office. Admittedly the steady hands of the Federal Reserve chairs during those eras likely had greater sway over the success of the markets than whoever was in the White House. The threat of war drove the Dow down until Oct. 9, 2002.
Recession of 1957
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). All these events created a lot of uncertainty for investors and the Dow bore the brunt of it, falling into a bear market in September 2022. Despite all time highs early in the year, six of the 20 worst-one day point losses for the Dow occurred in 2022. The Dow’s new high above 45,600 in August 2025 is impressive, but it’s part of a bigger global rally. 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 largest single-day drop, percentage-wise, that the Dow has had occurred when the market crashed on Oct. 19, 1987, Black Monday.
It’s important to remember that the stock market is influenced by many factors, including government policies, international trade, and corporate earnings. When looking at what is the highest the Dow Jones has ever been, these external factors often play a big role in driving the market to new levels. 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. This exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracks against the index.
- The Dow Jones hitting 45,631.74 in August 2025 shows how strong U.S. markets remain, with tech earnings, lower inflation, and Fed policy fueling record highs.
- Companies that become less relevant are replaced with those that better reflect current trends.
- Conversely, an encouraging drop in inflation reported earlier this week helped to fuel this latest rally.
- Although the DJIA is currently at an all-time high, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.
- The 2008 stock market crash was more dramatic than any other downturn in U.S. history.
- While only thirty stocks are included, together they paint a picture about the health of the economy in the United States.
- The Dow also lost 26.5% during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
- Today’s Dow includes stocks from a variety of sectors, including technology, finance, and consumer goods.
- The Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund almost collapsed, threatening to push its banking investors into bankruptcy.
The longest bull market in history lasted about 11 years, starting in March 2009 and ending in February 2020. The following are some milestones achieved by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In parentheses, when helpful, we provide the Dow’s points as inflation-adjusted to Feb. 23, 2024, for a relative comparison to its record highs.
Past Market Corrections and Dow Resilience
The downturn reflected a 10-month recession, from July 1953 to May 1954, during the military demobilization following the Korean War. The Dow fell 17% in three months, from 2,864.60 on Aug. 2 to 2,365.10 on Oct. 11, 1990. Kimberly Amadeo has 20 years of experience in economic analysis and business strategy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is made up of 30 large stocks. These latest changes mark just the 53rd adjustment to the DJIA since its inception in 1896 and highlight a shift toward companies that are more relevant in their respective industries.
Steel was removed from the index in 1991 and replaced by building material company Martin Marietta. This percentage represents how the Dow has changed since market open. The close was just shy of a previous record close of 40,003 set on May 17. The DJIA has seen several important moments throughout its long history. Established in 1896 by Charles Dow and Edward Jones, the index originally included just 12 industrial companies. Over time, the Dow expanded to include 30 of the largest U.S. companies, which better reflect the changing economy.
Since then, it’s changed many times—the very first came three months after the 30-component index launched. The first large-scale change was in 1932 when eight stocks in the Dow were replaced. The Cloud stocks DJIA is the second-oldest U.S. market index after the Dow Jones Transportation Average. The DJIA was designed to serve as a proxy for the health of the broader U.S. economy. Often referred to simply as the Dow, it is one of the most-watched stock market indexes in the world. While the Dow includes a range of companies, all can be described as blue chip companies with consistently stable earnings.