EDITOR'S NOTE
Happy 125th birthday to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which debuted more than a century ago with 12 members.
The Dow notched a lackluster return on Wednesday, rising just 10.59 points. Its best year occurred in 1915 when the benchmark rallied 81.7%, while 1931 marked its worst year with a 52.7% loss.
"The interesting thing about the Dow is that despite its odd construction and price weighting, which is really unusual and odd, it basically beat the S&P 500 over the last 30 years," said Wharton School professor Jeremy Siegel.
He said from April 30, 1991, to April 30, 2021, the annualized total return for the Dow as 11.17%. That compares with the total return, which includes reinvested dividends, of 10.59% for the S&P 500. 
Stocks have continued to be in a choppy pattern for the last several weeks. The S&P 500 rose marginally, about 0.2%, on Wednesday as reopening trades lifted the overall average. Airlines, cruise lines, hotel operators and retailers registered gains. Technology stocks helped the Nasdaq Composite rally 0.6%.
The small-cap benchmark Russell 2000 gained an impressive 1.9%.
“We continue to look for a strong recovery in economic growth in 2021, with low interest rates and moderate increases in inflation,” said Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo. “This backdrop should favor most equity markets globally, and especially those markets and sectors most closely correlated with economic growth.”
Speculative pockets of the market also charged higher Wednesday, with bitcoin at about $38,700 around 4:49 p.m. ET, according to Coin Metrics, and several so-called meme stocks notching major gains. GameStop and AMC Entertainment rose roughly 16% and 19%, respectively. Investor Cathie Wood’s flagship Ark Innovation ETF rose 1.8%. TOP NEWS
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