Go Figure

   The U.S. added 103,000 jobs last month, the unemployment rate held at 4.1 percent, and average earnings rose a bit. The economy has added jobs for 90 months straight, the jobless rate has been steady since October, and wages are higher. But for all these signs of strength, the stock market dropped nearly 600 points.
   What's going on? Whatever happened to the idea that the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the most widely followed stock market number, is allegedly a barometer of the economy?
   If it is, then America may be in trouble. If it's not, then why do investors sell in the face of such continuing economic good news?
   It could be that Wall Street statistics are not an indicator of future performance, but a reflection of investor emotions.
   One thing is sure about the stock market: It will fluctuate. In any case, few Americans own stock, so they are not directly affected by market performance as measured by the averages. For those who do own stock, they would be more interested in that individual stock's rise or fall, rather than an overall average. For those who don't own stock, the Dow averages, or any other data figure, doesn't matter.
   Unless high rollers on Wall Street know something that the rest of us don't know, and are working on insider information.
   But isn't that illegal? Yes, but that doesn't mean it's not there.
   Either that, or the investor world is a culture unto itself, and has little to do with the rest of the world of workers and managers.
   In any case, the U.S. economy has been growing steadily for nearly eight years, and it may be time to take a breath.
   Or not.