The Dow hit 10,000 this week!
So what?
We cling to round numbers as milestones as if they mean something. They don't. I have compared these zero-stacked metrics to a car's odometer. Where were you when your car hit 1,000 miles, 10,000 miles, or even 100,000 miles?
Odds are you weren't at some historic landmark. Odds are that something pivotal didn't happen in your life. You were just driving around, probably somewhere between a convenience store and picking up the dry cleaning.
Isn't that what this chunky Dow 10,000 number is all about? We're just driving through. Any celebrations should be quickly snuffed out with the grim reminder that the Dow was over 14,000 two years ago.
Observe the milestones if you must; just don't buy them a cake.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- Is the market ready for another Kindle killer? Photos and specs leaked of the e-book reader that Barnes & Noble
(NYSE:BKS) is slated to unveil on Tuesday. Are we getting to the point where there are too many characters in this thriller? The herd can use a little thinning. -
PepsiCo
(NYSE:PEP) is the latest naughty boy on Apple's(NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store. The pop and chips giant released a free "AMP UP Before You Score" app that provides pickup lines for one of 24 female stereotypes. It also allows users to create a brag list to share conquests with friends. PepsiCo's AMP energy drink is behind this iffy app, but it's the parent that will pay the price if there's a sexism backlash. -
Deutsche Telekom's
(NYSE:DT) T-Mobile is feeling the pain after a data-loss incident for many of its Sidekick owners. The fingers are pointed at Microsoft's(NASDAQ:MSFT) Danger subsidiary for the server slip. Mr. Softy is making headway on retrieving the data, but it's still a black eye to the young cloud-computing revolution.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
