The chart offers an interesting comparison between the Russell 2000, S&P 500, and the Dow. You can see in the past five days the broader market has outperformed the other two. The broader market which it could be argued is a better barometer of overall market health than the Dow has in the past week opened up somewhat of a performance gap against the other two indices. What is also shown is to a large degree the irrelevancy of the Dow as a barometer of market health. It needs to be remembered that the Dow doesn’t really have selection criteria for its stocks other than the vague notion that it must have an excellent reputation, demonstrates sustained growth and is of interest to a large number of investors. Whatever that means,
