New Market Measure

Although there are already dozens of indexes in Wall Street to measure the ups & downs of the stock market, SEC decided last week to publish its own eight indexes weekly.

Seven of the indexes are based on 265 selected common stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, divided into seven groups (durable goods manufacturing; nondurable manufacturing; total manufacturing; transportation; utilities; trade, finance and services; mining). The eighth, a composite of the seven, is intended to show the gyrations of the whole market.

The composite index (1939 = 100) this week was 177, up 27% from last year's low of 139.2. This compares with a 29% rise in the Dow-Jones 65 stock average and a 26% rise in the Dow-Jones industrial average, which many Wall Streeters use as a guide.

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