I think that Bush's administration did a lot (if not everything) to increase "demand" for speculative stocks and decrease demand for dollar. Oh yeah, that's what they are preaching - supply-side economy, push all the money into stocks.
The Dow is, as you say, less speculative. It's essentially the big dogs in American business. If you want to know where America is headed, though, the S&P and NASDAQ are probably the better choices, given the larger number of companies.
DJIA is where you dump your money when you want to play a conservative game, because people are always going to buy things from Wal-Mart and Johnson & Johnson. It's more stable, whereas NASDAQ is all over the place. NASDAQ companies are often engaged in fiercely competitive markets and can get tossed around like it's nobody's business. Intel and AMD come to mind. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
