The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 165 points, almost 6 percent of its value, after hitting its lowest point since August 1999 only last week. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 96 points, completing a wobbly week in the major American financial markets. Apart from tech stock activity, the markets are signaling an orderly and healthy slowdown, albeit one with an uncertain bottom. The Nasdaq, where there was the most feverish speculation, has been hammered over the past few months. Perception is only now catching up with economic reality.
Markets are a key indicator of economic health.
The economy in turn drives the national psychological mood. After a year of flat and down markets, it is only now dawning on the major media that market behavior presaged a changing economic climate. The media will undoubtedly overshoot the mark psychologically. The United States economy has expanded since the early 1980s, intensifying dramatically in the 1990s. An economic slowdown will converge with political uncertainty over the presidency in the coming year.