Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was not off to a very good start. It dropped below 10,000 points before 10 a.m., but fortunately ended above 10,000 by the end of the day. Why do we care?
The DJIA comprises 30 companies with a value of more than $10 billion. It all gets quite complicated, but I found a "dumbed-down" description of it all here.
The DJIA is widely publicized because it is considered an accurate measure of how our economy is doing, even though some argue that the Standard & Poor's 500 is more accurate than the DJIA. Everyone watched the DJIA when it started its downward spiral into the recession in 2008, but it really has been worse.
As I was clicking around on Yahoo! Finance today, I found an interactive chart for the DJIA that dates back to 1928. You can see the Dow's ups and downs. One interesting thing I noticed was that the recession barely makes a dent in the Dow's history. Things have clearly been worse. While the Dow took a nasty fall between October and April of 2009, it was nothing compared to the fall the economy took in the Great Depression.
If you're a geek for charts and maps, I highly encourage you to check out the market charts on Yahoo! Finance. You can even keep track of some stocks of local interest if you click here, then use the "Yahoo! Finance" tools.
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