16 July 1997: The Dow closes above 8,000
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 8,038.88, its first finish above 8,000, only about five months after it first passed 7,000. The late-1990s bull market was in full swing, fueled by falling inflation, rising profits and growing excitement about technology. Milestones were arriving so quickly that they started to feel routine. Round numbers make great headlines, but they say nothing about whether the prices behind them make sense.
The lesson: Round-number milestones are psychological, not economic; value depends on earnings, not on the digits.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in S&P 500 index fund at the start of 2000 → $4,626 today, vs $4,626 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2000, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 4.6 times the money, but $0 less than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What S&P 500 index fund teaches: Owning the whole market removes the risk of picking the wrong company but not the risk of a lost decade, so time horizon matters as much as diversification.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | $1,470 | $4,626 | $4,626 |
| 2003 | $880 | $7,727 | $7,727 |
| 2005 | $1,180 | $5,763 | $5,763 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought S&P 500 index fund? Every starting year and the full story →
More S&P 500 index fund history
- 5 February 2018: Volmageddon: the Dow drops 1,175 points
- 19 February 2020: The S&P 500 hits a record before COVID
- 29 February 2020: The US reports its first COVID-19 death
- 3 March 2020: The Fed makes an emergency rate cut
- 6 March 2009: The S&P 500 touches 666
- 9 March 2009: The bear market bottoms
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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