Dow closes above 40,000 for first time, notching new milestone
CBSN
The Dow closed above 40,000 points for the first time on Friday in a quiet day on Wall Street, with investors taking cheer in strong corporate profits and signs that inflation is cooling.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was launched in 1896, tracks the stocks of 30 major "blue-chip" companies generally regarded as low-risk investments. The index's listed companies include Apple, Intel and Microsoft among tech players, while the financial industry is represented by companies such as American Express, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. Health care companies in the Dow include Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Merck and UnitedHealth Group.
The Dow crossed the 30,000 point mark in November of 2020. Yet while the 128-year-old index is still widely followed, institutional investors generally focus on broader stocks market barometers, such as the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq.
