Dow 13,000 is a big number, but it's just a number

By Christina Rexrode, AP Business Writers



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Big, round numbers are hard to ignore. That's why we pay attention when the odometer clicks over to 100,000 miles, and why the world threw a party at the dawn of 2000 instead of the technical start of the millennium in 2001.
It's no different on Wall Street. When the Dow Jones industrial average briefly crossed 13,000 this week, a milestone it hadn't reached since before the financial crisis, people took notice.
Some observers said it was a sign of a stronger U.S. economy. Casual investors wondered whether it was time to get back into stocks after fleeing to bonds or just stuffing their money under the mattress in the terrifying economic meltdown.
But a word of caution: 13,000 is just a number.
It gives politicians something to talk about. It gives regular people something to measure against. It can stir up excitement, but it doesn't change the elements of the economy, like the number of people out of work or the number of empty houses... read more.

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