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The Dow Jones Industrial Average is the most widely quoted stock index in the media. As a result, most non-professional investors compare their personal portfolios to the Dow. In fact, investment professionals prefer other market measures. The Dow is a price-weighted index; this means that higher priced stocks have a greater weight than lower priced stocks. This contrasts to the S&P 500, a capitalization-weighted index where the size of the company determines its weight in the index.
As of market close September 21, 2012, the 30 industrials in this index are: 3M Company, Alcoa, American Express, AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot, Intel Corp., International Business Machines, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, McDonald’s, Merck, Microsoft Corp., Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Travelers Companies, United Health Group, United Technologies, Verizon Communications, Wal-Mart Stores, and the Walt Disney Company.
After plunging 33.8 percent in 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded 18.8 percent in 2009 and continued with an 11.0 percent boost in 2010 and 5.5 percent advance in 2011. The 10-year average of the annual gains improved in 2011 to 3.5 percent from 2.3 percent in 2010.
On a year-over-year basis, the Dow Jones Industrials was up 9.5 percent in October, compared to 23.1 percent in September.
In October, the Dow Jones Industrials fell a monthly 2.5 percent after increasing 2.6 percent the prior month, largely on fiscal cliff worries and soft economic data.
About the Stock Market • The Dow Jones Family • The S&P Family • Other Key Market Indices
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