Daily Closing Values of the Dow Jones Average in the United States, May 2, 1885 to Present

Presented here are the daily closing values of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) from October 7, 1896 to the present with an extension of the data back to May 2, 1885 using the Dow Jones Average. The entire series has been adjusted to be a consistent time series. To compute the annualized growth rate and plot a graph of this average between any two days, go to stock indexes growth calculator.

The most recent DJIA closing value in this data set is 42342.24 on December 19, 2024.

The History of the Dow Index

On July 3, 1884, Charles Henry Dow began publishing his Dow Jones Average. By the time it was published daily eight months later, the index was composed of 12 stocks, 10 of which were railroads. This index appeared in the Customer's Afternoon Letter up until July 8, 1889 when the first issue of The Wall Street Journal was published.

On October 7, 1896, Dow started publishing two "Daily Moving Averages," 12 industrials and 20 railroads (that would later become the transportation index.) This first Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was published through September 29, 1916.

This first DJIA closed at 71.42 on July 30, 1914 and so did the New York Stock Market for the next four months. Some historians believe the reason for this was worry that markets would plunge because of panic over the onset of the World War. An interesting book by William L. Silber titled When Washington Shut down Wall Street: The Great Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America's Monetary Supremacy (2007) has a different explanation. He thinks that Secretary of the Treasury, William McAdoo closed the exchange because he wanted to conserve the US gold stock in order to launch the Federal Reserve System later that year with enough gold to keep the US on the gold standard. Whatever the reason, the first day it reopened on December 12, 1914, the index closed at 74.56, thus the War had not had the predicted impact.

On October 4, 1916, the WSJ starts publishing a (new) DJIA of 20 stocks, 8 stocks from the old index and 12 new stocks. It was traced the index back to December 12, 1914 at that time.

It is important to know that data for the first DJIA of 12 stocks and the second DJIA of 20 stocks are BOTH available for the 21 months and the first index was about 36% higher than the second and the data here are adjusted to make them a consistent time series.

On October 1, 1928 the DJIA of 30 stocks was first quoted in the WSJ. It contained 14 stocks from the second list of 20 and 16 new stocks. Its level was consistent with the second list, so no adjustment was necessary.

For information of how these data are assembled, see Source Note for DJA.

Please read our Note on Data Revisions.

Samuel H. Williamson, "Daily Closing Values of the DJA in the United States, 1885 to Present," MeasuringWorth,
URL: http://www.measuringworth.com/DJA/

Please let us know if and how this discussion has assisted you in using our calculators.