This Day In Market History: Dow Hits 10,000 For The First Time

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

What Happened? On March 29, 1999, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached 10,000 for the first time.

Where The Market Was: The Dow finished the day at 9,997.62. The S&P 500 finished at 1,310.17.

What Else Was Going On In The World? In 1999, President Bill Clinton was acquitted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice, and the children’s cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants” debuted on the Nickelodeon network.

Dow Hits Five Figures: It took the Dow about a year to make it from 9,000 to 10,000 for the first time in March 1999, but only 24 days to get from 10,000 to 11,000.

The Dow never made it to 12,000 during the dot-com boom, peaking at 11,750 in January of 2000. The dot-com sell-off eventually sent the Dow as low as 7,197.49 in late 2002.

The Dow eventually made it back to the 12,000 level in 2006 and peaked at 14,198.10 in 2007 before the financial crisis. The index hit its lowest level of the 21st century in March of 2009, bottoming at 6,469.95.

In January 2017, the Dow hit the landmark 20,000 mark for the first time, a little less than 18 years after it hit 10,000. The Dow set several new all-time highs in early 2018, ultimately breaching 26,600 before pulling back below the 24,000 level.

The average sits around 35,000 at publication time.