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Dow Hits Record High, Surpassing 2007 Levels
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 5, 2013
Modified Mar 5, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 5, 2013
Modified Mar 5, 2013
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Time to break out the zany New Year's glasses, right? (Getty Images)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trading at over 14,200 points, a new record for the index which tracks 30 blue chip stocks. The previous record at 14,164.53—set in October 2007.
As the Wall Street Journal's Paul Vigna wrote in a live-blog of the record, "This is an odd space for a record, you know? Unemployment is high. Wage growth is anemic. Profit growth is anemic. Economic growth is anemic. None of the G-7 nations, as a matter of fact, are growing much if at all. And yet, the Dow is at a record high, the S&P 500 isn't far behind, and a number of other indexes are already in record territory. So, is it the fundamentals, or the Fed?"
Well, one fund manager says it's the Fed, telling Bloomberg News, "There’s more optimism about the U.S. thanks to the Fed. The data confirm that the U.S. economy is restarting, but they also show that the recovery is slow. That means more stimulus, which is good for markets, especially for U.S. stocks." The NY Times reports:
The stock prices of some of the companies in the index have more than doubled since that low point in 2009. For instance, American Express is up more than 400 percent. After the crash of 1929, it took 25 years for the Dow to get back to the nominal level it plunged from. The severe economic contractions of the 1930s, during which scores of banks collapsed, weighed heavily on stocks.
But one essential government institution did things differently after the 2009 low point, and that has bolstered the stock market. The Federal Reserve has added more than $3 trillion of monetary stimulus to the economy and more than $1 trillion of bailout loans to financial firms since the 2008 financial crisis. This was done to prevent a widespread banking crash and help the wider economy.
Perhaps as important is the psychological shot in the arm: when investors believe the Fed is providing a systemic backstop, they will be more likely to get back into the market, and stay there.
And a money manager tells the Times, "What’s amazing about this bull market is that people still don’t think it’s real. We think this could be the biggest bull market of our careers." Wooo hooo party time! What could possibly go wrong?!
Tagged
dow jones
economy
federal reserve
money
stock market
wall street
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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