The story
History
The average was created on July 3, 1884, by Charles Dow, co-founder of Dow Jones & Company, as part of the "Customer's Afternoon Letter". At its inception, it consisted of eleven transportation companies—nine railroads and two non-rail companies:
Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway
Chicago and North Western Railway
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway
Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Missouri Pacific Railway
New York Central Railroad
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Northern Pacific Railroad preferred stock
Pacific Mail Steamship Company (not a railroad)
Union Pacific Railway
Western Union (not a railroad)
As a result of the dominating presence of railroads, the Transportation Average was often referred to as "rails" in financial discussions in the early and middle part of the 20th century.
Price history
In 1964, the index first broke 200, slightly over where it was in 1929.
In 1983, the index first broke 500. In 1987, the index broke 1000. It closed at 2146.89 on March 9, 2009, having a low coincident with some other indices; this was a bit above its low of 1942.19 on March 11, 2003.
The index broke above the mid-5000s to begin a run of record highs on January 15, 2013, at a time when the better-known Industrials stood about 5% below all-time highs achieved more than five years earlier. By May, the Industrials and all other major indices except the NASDAQ group were making all-time highs, including the Transports, which reached new closing and intraday records above the 6,500 level. On October 24, 2013, the Transports closed at 7,022.79, for its first close above 7,000 points. It closed the year at a record high of 7,400.57. On May 27, 2014, it first closed above 8,000 points. The index closed above 9000 on November 10, 2014. At the close of 2014, the index hit 9139.92. At the close of 2015, the index hit 7508.71, a loss of 17.85% on the year.
From Wikipedia’s article on Dow Jones Transportation Average, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4