Yet here I am, writing about the DJIA crossing through yet another 1,000 point milestone – 25,000, no less – a mere 23 trading days after the last one and right on the tail of the 5 successive 1000 point marks achieved last year.
With the 152.45 points (0.61%) gained during today’s session, the Dow closes at 25,075.13 and is up:
- 1.44% year-to-date (over all of 3 trading days)
- 27.08% since Trump’s inauguration (I’ll leave to others on where to ascribe credit)
- 283.00% since the Financial Crisis low of 6,547.05 hit on March 9, 2009
- 77.03% since the pre-Financial Crisis high of 14,164.53 hit on October 9, 2007
As for elapsed time, this 23 day sprint from 24k to 25k is – by a single day – the fastest the DJIA has ever covered that ground; the moves from 10-11k and 20-21k each took 24 days. The returns for each climb, however, are markedly different: 10-11k represented a 10.1% return, for example, while the most recent mark is just a 3.31% increase.
And what are the drivers? Following are top 5 point contributors to each of the most recent milestones as well as the march from 15k to 25k (which transpired from May 2013 to the present). Boeing (BA) is the clear standout recently having contributed 17.7% of the run from 20-25k; as for the climb from 15-25k, Boeing was again the top stock followed by UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and 3M (MMM).
Again, when discussing this topic the standard caveats apply: a) though the aggregate DJIA advance is certainly notable, each 1,000 point mark is, while an interesting emotional milestone, an otherwise arbitrary threshold, and b) as noted above, each new mark represents a smaller percentage gain than its antecedents.
By the way, if you’re looking for a “Dow 25,000” hat to add to your collection, don’t come to me. At this rate, I don’t have the personal budget to keep printing them.
* – Don’t be confused as to how a 1,000 point milestone can be covered with 800 or 900 points. Remember that for this exercise, we’re striking from the closing DJIA value on the day each milestone was crossed and these never land right on the even thousand point mark. In the most recent case (24-25k), for example, the move was from 24,272.35 to 25,075.13 (or 802.77 points).
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