Dow Diary -- A Weekly Look at the Average in Its 100th Year --- Dow Jones Industrial Average -- The Next Century: Index Roared to Fame in 1920s
Try talking about the stock market without mentioning the Dow Jones Industrial Average: It is a little like talking about the weather without mentioning the temperature.</br></br>It wasn't always that way. For the first 25 years or so of its existence, the industrial average was mostly absent from headlines in the financial press.</br></br>In the late 19th century and early 20th century, investors focused mainly on the action of individual stock issues rather than the market as a whole. When they did look at market averages, they were more likely to look at railroad stocks, the blue chips of the day, than at industrial stocks, which were considered speculations.</br></br>It was in the Roaring '20s that many investors first became intimately acquainted with the industrial average. That was when masses of average citizens began buying stocks by the bundle. Their enthusiasm carried the industrial average from around 100 in 1924 to nearly 400 by mid-1929.</br></br>Then, the crash of 1929 thrust the Dow industrials to true prominence. Investors were hungry for a way to gauge the overall damage, so the Dow industrials made front-page headlines.