Not a 100% sure about this but has the dow readjusted for pricing and inflation and any other means the formula for the dow?? If not, a down day of 200 points today which some are calling a " slide" would be equal to the dow being down about 15 points in 1986....anyone know if its adjusted to stay consistent? i would think they would have to but you never know....when the dow was at 5000, a 200 point slide would be huge...but 13k???
On an arithmetic basis, 200 points is "large". Percentage-wise, it's "small". The media has to do something to make it sound important and impressive, therefore, they talk about point-fluctuations.