Dow Jones: All-Time High 13,861.73

What, exactly, is the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

The DJIA is an index of 30 "blue-chip" U.S. stocks. At 100-plus years, it is the oldest continuing U.S. market index. It is called an "average" because it originally was computed by adding up stock prices and dividing by the number of stocks. (The very first average price of industrial stocks, on May 26, 1896, was 40.94.) The methodology remains the same today, but the divisor has been changed to preserve historical continuity. The DJIA is the best-known market indicator in the world, partly because it is old enough that many generations of investors have become accustomed to quoting it, and partly because the U.S. stock market is the globe's biggest.

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