The Dow Jones Industrial Average
The most often-quoted stock market indicator is the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). In 1896, Charles Dow averaged closing prices of 12 representative stocks and the DJIA was christened. Since then it has been expanded to include 30 familiar blue chip companies to be more representative of the country's largest companies.
The calculation is also changed to reflect stock splits. While this index is not reflective of the entire stock market, watching changes in the DJIA can help you stay abreast of current conditions.
Original Dow Stocks
|
American Cotton Oil |
Laclede Gas |
|
American Sugar |
National Lead |
|
American Tobacco |
North American |
|
Chicago Gas |
Tennessee Coal & Iron |
|
Distilling & Cattle Feeding |
U. S. Leather preferred |
|
General Electric |
U. S. Rubber |
Current DJIA Stocks
|
3M Company |
Johnson & Johnson |
|
American Express Company |
McDonald's Corporation |
|
Apple Inc. |
Merck & Company, Incorporated |
|
Boeing Company |
Microsoft Corporation |
|
Caterpillar Incorporated |
Nike |
|
Chevron Corporation |
Pfizer Incorporated |
|
Cisco Systems, Inc. |
Proctor & Gamble Company |
|
Coca-Cola Company |
Travelers Companies, Inc. |
|
DowDuPont |
UnitedHealth Group |
|
Exxon Mobil Corporation |
United Technologies Corporation |
|
Goldman Sachs |
Verizon Communications Inc. |
|
Home Depot Incorporated |
Visa |
|
Intel Corporation |
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. |
|
International Business Machines |
Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated |
|
J.P Morgan Chase & Company |
Walt Disney Company |
In September, 2012, UnitedHealth Group replaced Kraft Foods. In September, 2013, Goldman Sachs, Nike and Visa replaced Alcoa, Bank of America and Hewlett Packard. In March, 2015, Apple replaced AT&T. In 2017, DowDuPont replaced DuPont when Dow Chemical merged with DuPont. In 2018, Walgreens Boots Alliance replaced General Electric.
The DJIA is the most well known stock market indicator. However, the S+P 500 and NASDAQ indexes include a broader selection of stocks including smaller companies.