The Dow Jones Index is a single statistic that supposedly represents the overall health of our economy. It was created by Charles Dow in 1896 to be an easy way of comparing the stock prices of various companies. To make Dow Jones more relevant, it's adjusted for inflation and includes all of the stocks on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow Jones also includes data from other exchanges around the world, but since they are not of similar size or representation, their impact is minimal.

Dow Jones & Company is one of the world's largest business and financial news companies. The company was founded by Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. Charles Dow founded it in the 19th century. In addition to the well-known Dow Jones Industrial Average, the business also produced several other market averages.