what is meant by the statement," the dow is down 60 points?"?

Question

Does this mean that, it is down 60 million dollars or what?

Answer 1

Good question.
The DOW Jones tracks publicly exchange stock prices and earnings. ( I believe the Dow Jones tracks 50 large companies).

At the end of each day they published the average (one) price of the all the 50 stocks. When the average price of the 50 stocks goes down 60 points, they mean that the ovaerall average price goes down by 60 points or cents per share. In other words, the average price dropped $.60 per share. Remember, the price change of a stock may have nothing do or does not give an indication if the company is good or bad, it only means the price investors are willing to pay for a stock.

Many times the price of a stock is more depended on bad and false information on the company. That is why the price (moving up or down is only one indication of many other factors.

Answer 2

The DOW actually tracks closer to 30 of the most widely held stocks in the US and when they say it has gone down X amount of points they mean it has dropped value. Today it dropped just below 60 and it is now back under 11,000. This disruption is mainly due to the chaos in the mid-east. The market is a psychological game, when people are scared it goes down and people sell, wanting their money back before something bad happens. When people are happy with things they buy and it goes up which is good if we are long, bad if we are short the market. Hope this information helps and best of luck to your future investing.

Answer 3

It means what it says; Dow Jones Industrial Average (an index of 50 industrial stocks) has decreased by 60, say, from 10,920 to 10,860.