Where Were You at Dow 2000?
It may seem hard to believe after the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been at 10,000, but it was only a little more than 12 years before, on Jan. 8, 1987, that the average first hit 2000.
You remember 1987. Michael Douglas starred that year in the movie ''Wall Street,'' portraying the greedy Gordon Gekko.
But the real fireworks in 1987 took place on the real Wall Street. The industrial average started the year at 1895.95, then staged one of the most impressive advances in history, surging nearly 44%, and peaking at 2722.42 on Aug. 25. In the fall it turned around and suffered one of the biggest declines on record, dropping nearly 1,000 points in two months. The selling cresendo peaked on Oct. 19, with a 508-point, nearly 23%, crash, the worst one-day drop ever.
When the Dow industrials surpassed the 2000 mark, almost no one foresaw the pyrotechnics to come. The prevailing feeling was that, having climbed to 2000, the average would need to rest for a while.
Alfred Goldman of A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis predicted ''a victory celebration and then a headache.'' New York money manager Robert Stovall predicted a ''groundhog day'' effect in which the market would ''see its shadow, and promptly duck down again.'' Mary Farrell of PaineWebber predicted a trading-range market hovering between 1800 and 2200.
Nor did many people guess at the time that seven additional millenary milestones would fall in little more than a decade. After all, it had taken the industrial average about 76 years to reach 1000, in 1973. Then it took nearly 14 years for the average to climb to 2000.
Of course, it's easier and easier to hit each 1,000-point milestone, because each point gain becomes smaller on a percentage basis as the index rises.
''I'm excited. This is history,'' exclaimed trader Jack Baker, then with Shearson Lehman Brothers in New York, the day the 2000 barrier was snapped. ''I caught 1000 and 2000 and I hope to live long enough to catch 3000.'' Mr. Baker captured the prevailing mood. But though hardly a soul suspected it at the time, the 3000 mark was only four years away.
How Long it Took
When the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached each of eleven 1,000-point milestones
1,000.....Nov. 14, 1972....76 years
2,000.....Jan. 8, 1987.....14 years
3,000.....April 17, 1991.....4 years
4,000.....Feb. 23, 1995.....4 years
5,000.....Nov. 21, 1995.....9 months
6,000......Oct. 14, 1996....11 months
7,000.....Feb. 13, 1997....4 months
8,000......Jul. 16, 1997....5 months
9,000......Apr. 6, 1998......9 months
10,000.....Mar. 29, 1999.....12 months
11,000......May. 3, 1999....1 month