I'm not a big financial guy but: Why are Dow Jones' stock estimates SO high?!?

Question

- And how much would a share sell for??

Answer 1

Is there a question in there?

Answer 2

You're obviously not a big financial guy...

The Dow Jones is an index of stock prices.  It could have been set at 1 or 1,000,000 on its first day so the fact that it's at 11,000 is meaningless.  

You can't buy a share in the Dow.  You can buy an ETF that tracks the Dow but it's a different animal.

You need to start with some basic study.  Money magazine is good for beginners.  Read the Wall Street Journal when you see one sitting around.

Answer 3

07-15-08 we are currently trading under 11,000 in the DOW.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?d=t&s=%5EDJI

As for what Dow shares sell for? Here is a live list of the 30 Dow stocks.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cp?s=%5EDJI

Why are earnings estimates so high?

I think we have seen massive down revisions of earnings estimates.

I think the S&P 500 is a better indicator to watch.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cp?s=%5EGSPC

Answer 4

Wishful hope on the part of analysts who are generally overly optimistic to begin with.

Answer 5

"Stock estimates"?  What estimates do you mean?

Answer 6

Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (Current tick is 11,088.33) is, essentially, a number produced by a mathematical formula.  That formula is suppose to measure the performance of a group of (30) stocks over time (100 years+).  Since things have changed a lot over the last 100 years, the formula is very complex.

In a very simple way, an "index" is created by adding together all the prices of all the stocks you want to measure (That is, whether they are "up" or "down" as a group) and dividing by the number of stocks in the group to get a single number that you can watch over time.

As a practical and financial and mathematical matter, it is a lot more complicated than that -- which is how you end up with an index number "11078" that is much higher than any of the stock prices in the index.

To buy all the stocks in the index for a (relatively) small amount of money, all you have to do is buy the ticker DIA.  The current quote for DIA is $110.44.

(That is not a recommendation or a solicitation.  Just a statement of fact)