Index since 1896, with “the” Crossword Clue

 The answer to the crossword clue "index since 1896, with “the”" is THE DOW. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a stock market index that was created in 1896 by Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. It is one of the oldest and most-watched stock market indices in the world. The DJIA is a price-weighted index, which means that the price of each stock in the index is multiplied by its weighting factor. The weighting factors are based on the market capitalization of each stock.

The full name of the index is The Dow Jones Industrial Average. The "the" is not part of the official abbreviation for the index, which is DJIA. However, it is often included in crossword puzzles and other word games to make the clue more difficult.

I hope this helps!