What does it mean when the Do Jones Industrial Average is up or down?
Unless you personally own everyone of the 30 stocks that make up the DIJA, it doesn’t mean a great deal. It is a broad indication of market direction. When you hear that the market is up 85 points, that simply means that this group of stocks as a whole is up approximately 85 points in value. It’s just a market bellwether only. The DJIA could be substantially up one day and your particular stocks could be down in value.