Funnily enough, the Dow was a relatively unimportant indicator until the Great Depression, when the media seized upon it as something to watch on a daily basis. It was originally intended not to be checked more than a few times a month, and only as a brief snapshot of the economy.

It's importance in popular media and culture is vastly overblown. The rising and falling of the Dow on a daily basis is basically worthless from an economic point of view - it's just noise.