The DOW at 19,000

Dow closes above 19,000 for first time in its 120-year history

Excerpt:

Get out the Dow 19,000 rally caps. The Dow Jones industrial average, arguably the world's best-known stock market gauge, closed above the 19,000 barrier Tuesday for the first time in its 120-year history.

For the second straight day, all four major U.S. stock indexes touched new record high territory. The Dow jumped 67.18 points, or 0.4%, to close at a record high of 19,023.87, according to preliminary calculations. T

he Standard & Poor's 500 index closed above 2200 for the first time ever as it rose 4.76 points, or 0.2%, to 2202.94.

The Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%, to an all-time closing high of 5386.35 and the Russell 2000 gained 0.9% to 1334.27, its thirteenth straight session of gains.

The assault on Dow 19,000 has taken nearly two years, or 700 calendar days, since it took out the 18,000 barrier back on Dec. 23, 2014. It was the slowest climb from one 1,000-point milestone to the next since taking nearly six years to climb from 14,000 in July 2007 to 15,000 in May 2013. (That long drought, of course, coincided with the Great Recession and the worst stock market decline since the Great Depression.)

Comment: Way back when I was working on my BBA at the University of Cincinnati, the DOW had not yet breached 1,000 (milestone reached November 14, 1972). I graduated in June 1971. More: Dow 19000! But 1,000 Points Ain’t What It Used to Be

Sure, the Dow Jones Industrial Average just closed above 19000 for the first time. But it did it by rising just 5.6% over about the past two years, ever since it first pierced 18000 in December 2014. That means it took almost 500 trading days to achieve the latest 1000-point milestone, the seventh-longest stretch of time between such round-number marks. The 16000, 17000 and 18000 Dow record were all shattered in fewer than 160 trading sessions after the previous 1,000-point level was first reached. And simple math shows that each 1,000-point rise is less impressive than the last. The march from 17000 to 18000 was good for a 5.9% gain, for example, while the climb from 10000 to 11000 equated to a 10% rise. Put the two measures together, and the latest 1,000-point climb was the result of average gains of about 0.01% each trading day. The last three round-number records were set after average moves of more than 0.04% each day.

Here’s when we’ll see Dow 20,000, according to one chart expert https://t.co/VhCAjzJvW5 via @tradingnation

— CNBC (@CNBC) November 23, 2016

Despite all the hoopla, the S&P 500 has achieved only a “very minor break to new highs.”

Here's why: https://t.co/FzWBqyI1oM pic.twitter.com/MKKXCxHPaI

— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) November 26, 2016

The trailing 12-month P/E ratio for $SPX is 20.1. https://t.co/u361qpGrkV pic.twitter.com/ARplaY65Uv

— FactSet (@FactSet) November 26, 2016