Dow Jones Industrial Average Tops 40000 for the First Time

The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 40000 for the first time, a milestone that appeared implausible little more than two years ago when the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to cool an overheated economy.

Gloom and doom forecasts abounded. When the central bank ended the era of ultralow rates that prevailed in the years following the global financial crisis, economists predicted painful consequences: a U.S. recession and rising unemployment.

Markets shuddered. The Dow industrials and other equity benchmarks ended 2022 with their biggest declines since 2008, the year Lehman Brothers collapsed.