Word: dowe
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...stock prices are a leading indicator, as they are often considered to be, then the U.S. economy is in for a roller coaster ride. After starting from a low of 889 in January, the most widely watched gauge of the market, the Dow Jones industrial average, has thumped along like an excited heartbeat, often surging up or down by 15 or more points in a day. During the first half of the year, the general trend had been up, but now a new pattern is emerging: in each of the last two weeks the Dow has spurted...
...illustrated Wall Street's supersensitivity to any hint of tight money. It occurred after the Chase Manhattan Bank raised its prime rate on business loans by one-quarter of 1% , to 5½% -even though such a move had long been expected. A more basic reason for the Dow's strange behavior has nothing to do with the economy at all; the often-approached but never-broken 1,000 mark* has become a psychological barrier. Every time the Dow gets near that level some investors sell, believing that the value of their securities is reaching a peak...
Cyclicals Up. To the extent that stock-price movements are indeed telling something about the economy, the story is favorable. The Dow Jones industrial average is composed of only 30 stocks; less-publicized indices measuring the performance of hundreds of issues have hit historic highs in the last few weeks. "Cyclical" stocks-shares in companies whose earnings typically rise and fall with the general economy-are improving. These include stocks of hotels, machine tool, auto and appliance firms. Moreover, the U.S. economy is now growing more rapidly and suffering less swift inflation than the economies of most other industrial nations...
...During four different trading days in January and February of 1966, the Dow did briefly go over 1,000, but each time it fell back to close below that mark...
...mutual funds generally rose more rapidly than the popular market averages. But the funds may have got themselves into a chicken-or-egg situation. Undoubtedly the greatest possible stimulus to sales of fund shares would come from the public excitement about the market that would be generated by the Dow Jones average breaking the 1,000 mark. The question is whether the market can muster the buying power to achieve that breakthrough without a prior revival of the mutual funds...