As a newbie, I was sucked into caring about every little PPI and employment figure as if any of that mattered in the intermediate to long term. It's all bullshit. The only people who make money off it are the people who trade the big swings on the days that news is released. Interest rates are of course a big deal, but not those little numbers. The figures are adjusted and fiddled with and distorted so that they lose all meaning.
Interest rates are more reliable.
As far as the Naz goes, since it's attracting all these top-callers and people who think it's full of crap stocks, I think this article puts things in another perspective. One thing it points out is that stocks on the Naz ARE being selectively bought. Unless you just buy the biggest companies out there like Cisco and Microsoft, you're not guaranteed money. The Naz is propelled by growth, and when companies cease to grow as fast, they get slammed. Not healthy stock charts.