The NASDAQ closed down ten points today

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Just a minor rant, too mundane for the Pit:

Typical news report: “Stocks were mixed today. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 25-1/4, closing at 10,234-1/2. The NASDAQ closed down ten points.”

Why don’t they ever state the actual value of the NASDAQ? I don’t mind if they lead off with how much it changed, but once in a while I’d like to hear them conclude with its current value. I know the change is important, but it’s not the only thing that’s important.

I don’t follow the stock markets closely but once in a while I like to check in. I get most of my news from the radio. Most news reports conclude with a little blurb about how stocks did (are doing) today. But they invariably omit the value of the NASDAQ.

My conclusion: Somehow someone has found a way to charge a fee for stating the value of the NASDAQ and radio stations don’t want to pay it.

Just think of the trend: “Tomorrow will be cooler and there will be less rain.” “The president’s plane is scheduled to land somewhere west of where it took off at a somewhat later time.” “There was a bigger earthquake in Los Angeles today than there was yesterday.” “A noted celebrity, not as famous as the guy who died yesterday, is less alive than he/she was a week ago.”

2

My primary reason for replying is to keep you from grabbing my crown as king of the dead end post.

OTOH anyone who follows the markets has a good idea of the current values for the various indexes anyway. When NPR gives the market reports they state at least the point and percentage change which is more valuable.

3

True. I think that the markets should be reported thusly:

The NASDAQ/NYSE/xxx close Up/Down yy.yyyy percent today, closing at zzzzz.zz.

The change relative to yesterday is important, as is the closing value.

The points are just like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, they don’t matter.

4

Not to belabor such a minor issue but:

  1. Thanks for replying. I was hoping this would be another Guy Thread but it seems to be a slow starter. It’ll pick up soon, I’m sure. Maybe there should be more nudity?

  2. My point exactly. Anyone who follows the market closely knows the current values. I don’t, so I need the reminder of what the current value is. It’s my belief, further, that anyone who follows the markets closely doesn’t get their updates from radio news. So who is the intended audience for these (IMO) incomplete reports?

  3. I don’t know if NPR is worse than anyone else at reporting these, but I listen to NPR news more often than any other. They seldom give the percentage and almost never give the current value. BTW, the NASDAQ was down nearly 82 points yesterday.

5

82 points? dives out window

6

Hmmmm… “Morning Edition” quoted the NASDAQ this morning, and does quite often. I have fond memories of driving to work and thinking “oh, it’s up 100 points today? Wonder what my stock is at?”

Now I just change the channel to music when the stock quotes come on. Too depressing.

7

If you read the front page of USA Today, they usuaally say it like this “NASDAQ Plunges ten points”

8

Slightly off-topic, but I like it when they do that with the news - give a background sentence or two. I don’t follow current events that closely, so when I leap into the front page of the newspaper, it’s somewhat intimidating to see the headlines proclaiming the death of some Obviously Important Guy I don’t know about.

9

For the record, Cory Flintough(sp?) on NPR gave the whole kit and kaboodle today. He must be a lurker.