The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is one of the best-known stock market indexes in the United States. Owned by Dow Jones & Company, it measures the daily price movements of 30 large American companies on the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. It is widely viewed as a proxy for general market conditions and the U.S. economy as a whole.
Started in 1896, the DJIA consists of blue-chip stocks, approximately two-thirdsof which are represented by companies producing industrial and consumer goods. The rest are chosen from all the major sectors of the economy, including information technology, entertainment, and financial services.
Key Takeaways
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) measures the daily price movements of 30 large American companies on the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.
- The components are chosen from all the major sectors of the economy, with the exception of the transportation and utility industries.
- The DJIA is price-weighted, which means stocks with higher share prices are given greater weight in the index.
What Is "The Dow"?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), popularly referred to as “The Dow,” is regarded as the “pulse of thestock market,” as it is one of the most quoted and followed stock market indexesby investors, financial professionals, and the media. The Dow was unveiled on May 26, 1896, by Charles H. Dow and Edward Jones as a composition of 12 industrial-company stocks. Dow, a financial journalist, believed that investors should have an impersonal, numbers-based benchmark to see how the stock market was trending. The published average of the first index was a roaring 40.94.
Today, the DJIA's components are chosen from all the major sectors of the economy, with the exception of the transportation and utility industries. Stocks from these sectors are covered by the Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJTA) (which was Dow and Jones' first index, the oldest in the U.S.) and Dow Jones Utility Average (DJUA). The current roster includes the likes of Apple, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Boeing, and Chevron. Major companies like Exxon Mobil and General Electric, the only corporation that was included since 1896, were dropped off the list.
The component stocks of the DJIA are not permanent; new additions and deletionsare made from time to time based on certain non-quantitative criteria. Only companies with a substantial growth record and wide investor interest are considered for inclusion.
Calculating the Dow Jones Industrial Average
The DJIA was calculated by hand hourly for a number of years. Back in 1896, Charles Dow simply added up the prices of the 12 stocks and divided them by 12. In 1923, Arthur “Pop” Harris was assigned the task of calculating these numbers. After his retirement in 1963, computers were used to calculate the figures.
Originally, there was a delay of about seven minutes between the close of the NYSE until the final number came out over the wires. Eventually, electronic technology enabled a constant minute-by-minute calculation of the average while the market is trading.
The DJIA is a price-weighted index, which means stocks with higher share prices are given greater weight in the index. Instead of dividing by the number of stocks in the average, as is done in an arithmetic average, the sum of the component stock prices is divided by a special divisor. The purpose of this Dow divisor, which is continually adjusted, is to smooth out the effects of stock splits, dividends paid, or corporate spinoffs; this allows for a consistent index, keeping the Dow from getting distorted by one-time events. The result isthe DJIA is affected only by changes in the stock prices, and stocks with a higher share price have a larger impact on the Dow's movements.
The table below alphabetically lists the companies included in the DJIA as of August 2021:
| Dow Jones Industrial Average Components | ||
|---|---|---|
| Company | Symbol | Year Added |
| 3M | MMM | 1976 |
| American Express | AXP | 1982 |
| Amgen | AMGN | 2020 |
| Apple Inc. | AAPL | 2015 |
| Boeing | BA | 1987 |
| Caterpillar | CAT | 1991 |
| Chevron | CVX | 2008 |
| Cisco Systems | CSCO | 2009 |
| The Coca-Cola Company | KO | 1987 |
| Dow Inc. | DOW | 2019 |
| Goldman Sachs | GS | 2013 |
| The Home Depot | HD | 1999 |
| Honeywell | HON | 2020 |
| IBM | IBM | 1979 |
| Intel | INTC | 1999 |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 1997 |
| JPMorgan Chase | JPM | 1991 |
| McDonald's | MCD | 1985 |
| Merck & Co. | MRK | 1979 |
| Microsoft | MSFT | 1999 |
| Nike | NKE | 2013 |
| Proctor & Gamble | PG | 1932 |
| Salesforce | CRM | 2020 |
| The Travelers Companies | TRV | 2009 |
| UnitedHealth Group | UNH | 2012 |
| Verizon | VZ | 2004 |
| Visa | V | 2013 |
| Walgreens Boots Alliance | WBA | 1997 |
| Walmart | WMT | 2018 |
| The Walt Disney Company | DIS | 1991 |
What the DJIAMeasures
The DJIAis simply a reflection of theweighted averageof the stock pricesand can be considereda price in itself. If the quote moves down by 80 points at the time of closing, it means you can get the stocks for$80.00less(taking into account the divisor), and they are less valuablethan the previous day. Overall, a rise in the Dow signifies a rise in the share prices of constituent companies thatreflecta positive outlook and vice versa.
Over time, the DJIAcan be used as a benchmark for the economy. The largest single-day percentage drop in the DJIA was on Oct. 19, 1987, when the index dropped over 22%. The second-largest decline occurred on Mar. 16, 2020, when it dropped 12.9%. Not surprisingly, these drops coincided with times of financial instability in the United States.
But remember,a rise in the index may be because of a substantial rise in share prices of a single company thatis able to outweigh the fall in share prices of a few of the other stocks. So even if you are holding shares of a constituent company, a rise in the Dow may not necessarily be indicative of theshare priceof thecompany you're invested in moving up. The Dow indicates the average trend of all30 stocks together; the direction depends on which side is stronger—a rise in share prices or a fall in share prices.
Article Sources
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S&P Global. "Dow Jones Industrial Average."
The Library of Congress. "Dow Jones Industrial Average First Published."
indexArb. "Index Component Weights of Stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average."
S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Sizzlers and Fizzlers."
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