Dow Jones closes down 437 points, short of 20th record high close for 2026
The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged down 13.96 points on Wednesday. The drop came after an earlier gain that saw it hit 52,742.66, but the Dow lost steam, slipping 437.42 points from that intraday high. It settled at 52,305.24, missing out on what would have been its 20th record close of 2026. In the last 30 minutes, the index needed just a small gain to get to that milestone. Investors paid more attention to the swings in the tape than to how the Dow closed. The index fell much further from its high than the final change showed—a 31:1 ratio. The Dow traded across a 716.02-point range for the day, equal to 1.37% of its closing value, according to WSJ