The Dow hits 30K for the first time ever — we're talking stock market vs. economy
DowThirtyThow... On Tuesday, the Dow index surged above the 30K milestone for the 1st time. That's a nice glow-up from March, when it was trading below 19K.
- The Dow is a super exclusive club with fewer members than your Econ discussion group — it's made up of 30 big, publicly-traded US companies.
- "Blue-chip" status: Dow companies generally have long, profitable track records — aka: excellent reputations. Microsoft, Nike, and Walmart are members.
Not the only record-breaker... Stocks took a major plunge into the valley of the coronavirus back in March, but now the three major indexes are at record highs. Promising vaccine news, less political uncertainty, and renewed hopes for a second stimulus have all boosted the rally.
- The Dow is up 2% from its pre-pandemic record high.
- The S&P 500 is up 9% from its pre-pandemic high.
- The tech-heavy Nasdaq is up a whopping 33% from its pre-pandemic record.
The stock market doesn't always mirror the economy... especially not the corona-conomy. While the unemployment rate is declining, more than 11M Americans are still unemployed. Last week, jobless claims posted their first back-to-back increases since July. Also: Americans' incomes and savings fell last month, and consumer confidence slipped more than expected this month.