Primary equities market

New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ
The New York Stock Exchange traces its origins back more than 200 years, to the signing of the Buttonwood Agreement by 24 New York City stockbrokers and merchants in 1792. The NYSE registered as a national securities exchange with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 1, 1934. One of its increasingly unique features is that it still practices the open outcry system of trading. NASDAQ, on the other hand, is an electronic quotation system that provides price quotations to market participants about more actively traded common stock issues in the over the counter market. About 4000 common stock issues are included in the NASDAQ system. The Nasdaq Stock Market made its debut in 1971 as the world's first electronic stock market. Trades are executed though a sophisticated computer and telecommunications network.

Primary equities indexes

Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted average of 30 blue-chip stocks that are generally the leaders in their industry. It has been a widely followed indicator of the stock market since October 1, 1928.

Nasdaq
The NASDAQ Composite Index is a broad-based capitalization-weighted index of all NASDAQ National Market & Small Cap stocks. The index was developed with a base level of 100 as of February 5, 1971.

Most major world equity indexes fell for a third year in 2002, including both the Dow and the NASDAQ. If its any consolation, the NASDAQ fell more sharply in 2000 than it did in 2002. Otherwise, 2002 ranked among the worst for stock-market returns in the past 35 years. In fact, three years of consecutive declines are rare. The NASDAQ index has a shorter history than the Dow, and has never recorded three straight yearly declines until now. The last three-year drop for the Dow occurred in the 1939 though 1941 period.

Both the Dow and Nasdaq were up in October. At the end of the month, the Dow was up 12.7 percent since December 31, 2005 while the Nasdaq was up 7.3 percent. The Dow was above the 12,000 level for the first time.