Dow and Jones: Wizards of Wall Street

• Documentary

Episode overview

The fascinating story of the lives and partnership of Charles Dow and Edward Jones, whose combined talents produced the Dow Jones Industrial Average, one of the most influential financial indicators in history. It traces Dow’s early ambitions as a journalist, his collaboration with Jones at the Providence Journal, and their founding of the Wall Street Journal in 1889. The program highlights Dow’s creation of the first stock index in 1896 and follows the evolution of the Dow through major economic events—from the rise of corporate giants and early market booms to the shocks of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Panic of 1907, and the 1929 crash. Financial historians explain how their work shaped modern markets and why the Dow remains a central measure of economic confidence.

60 minutes