This Day In Market History: Dow Hits 4,000

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened? On Feb. 23, 1995, the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 4,000 for the first time.

Where The Market Was: The S&P 500 was trading at 486.91 and the Dow closed the day at 4,003.33.

What Else Was Going On In The World? In 1995, Timothy McVeigh used a car bomb to attack the Oklahoma City Federal Building, killing 168 people and injuring 680 others. The tech world got its first taste of Javascript. The average American paid $550 per month in rent.

Breaking The 4K Barrier: At the time the Dow finally pushed above 4,000, Wall Street had been on such a run that there were plenty of skeptics out there. In fact, the Wall Street Journal printed the headline “Stocks Cross 4000 for the First Time, But the Visit There May Be Brief."

 In reality, the Dow only briefly dipped back below 4,000 for two days before surging higher and never looking back. The down crossed above 5,000 by the end of 1995 and was above 6,000 by late 1996.

The Dow ultimately peaked at 11,750 during the height of the dot-com bubble in early 2000. Since that time, the lowest it has traded was 6,469 during the bottom of the 2008 financial crisis. In the years since hitting 4,000 for the first time, the Dow has delivered an overall gain north of 600%.