"The Dow," shorthand for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, is usually what people are talking about when they refer to "the market" — i.e., the stock market.  The DJIA, the symbol for the Dow, seems to be cited more often than other averages and indices, such as the Nasdaq Composite, the S&P 500, and the Russell 1000, even though it consists of only 30 stocks.  Some think of the Dow as a measure of the health of economy. On Dec. 26, USA Today ran "How the stock market performed under every president for the past 100 years" by Samuel Stebbins.  The study had run six days earlier at 24/7 Wall St. (italics added): 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the change in the DJIA under every president since the end of WWI. The Dow's performance was measured by calculating the percentage change of non-inflation adjusted month-end closing values from each president's first month in office to his last. The lack of...(Read Full Article)