They don't just select issues willy nilly. When GE was removed (the last remaining of the original 30 "Industrials" ) they replaced it with Walgreens Boots Alliance. Are they the same sorts of companies? No, they aren't, but there are a shit-ton of Walgreens stores in this country and their market cap was such that it made a reasonable replacement.
The issues on the list of 30 aren't necessarily pure "Industrials" anymore, as I'm sure you are aware, but that doesn't mean they don't represent a reasonable, albeit small, cross-section of American business. The rise or fall of the index on a daily basis means exactly what it is supposed to mean; What traders feel is the likely profitability of a given company going forward.
That's ALL a stock price means.
It is a pretty rare day indeed when the DJIA and the S&P500 do not change withing a few tenths of a percentage point of each other.
If you REALLY want a broad index of the New York Stock Exchange, use the Russell 3000, which interestingly enough, is down 2.10% currently, only one tenth of a percent away from where the Dow is and 15 hundredths from the S&P.
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