Birthday Blahs Greet Dow At 100

Some people have no respect.

The New York Exchange on Tuesday celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Dow Jones Industrial Average - everybody’s favorite market indicator.

Investors refused to have fun. They dumped stocks, saddling the Dow average with a loss of 53.19 points, or almost 1 percent, to 5709.67.

Instead of buying the 30 DJIA stocks for old times’ sake, people knocked them down. Twenty-four of the stocks fell; only four had gains.

You would have thought that a few at least would have bid up General Electric Co. shares; GE is the only one of the original 12 Dow stocks still included in the average. But practicality won over sentiment. GE fell $2.37-1/2 to $82.62-1/2

Two of the biggest losers among the Dow stocks were Philip Morris Cos. and Coca-Cola Co. Analysts said these companies’ earnings would be hurt if the dollar keeps rising, increasing the price of their exports and reducing the value of profits made in other currencies.

When Charles Dow first published his market indicator in 1896, were many isolationist American investors worried about currency fluctuations?

Stocks also suffered Tuesday from spurts of selling generated by computers. Birinyi Associates said these runs by themselves nicked 65 points off the Dow average.

Computers? Charles Dow figured his average with pencil and paper.

Perhaps the timing was wrong for a celebration. The Dow average actually was born on May 26. This year, May 26 was a Sunday and the next day the Memorial Day holiday.