The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 44000 for the first time on record Monday. The index added around 304 points, or 0.69%, to 44293.13. The climb from 43000—hit 20 trading days ago—was led by Goldman Sachs,

Most indexes, like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, assign a higher weighting to the largest companies by market cap. For example, Apple has roughly 11 times the market cap of Coca-Cola, so it has a much higher weighting in the S&P 500. But in the Dow, Apple is the 12th highest-weighted company by market cap because the index is price-weighted.

Short-term bearish investors can profit from declines in the Dow Jones with ProShares Short Dow30 ETF (DOG), but it's not ideal for long-term investment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI 0.59%) is making its second major change in 2024. Earlier this year, Amazon ( AMZN -0.89%) replaced Walgreens Boots Alliance. Now, Nvidia ( NVDA -0.84%) is swapping with Intel, and Sherwin-Williams is replacing chemical giant Dow.

For Nvidia (NVDA) , this has been the best of years. The company, led by Jensen Huang, makes the graphic processing chips that are the foundation of artificial intelligence, and everyone wants a piece of the company.

Chip giant Nvidia will join the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the iconic Wall Street index announced Friday, underscoring the importance of artificial intelligence in the US economy.