Long Term Perspective 

 

 

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 23, 2013, the 30 industrials in this index were: 3M Company, American Express, AT&T, Boeing, Caterpillar, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, DuPont, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Goldman Sachs Group, Home Depot, Intel Corp., International Business Machines, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, McDonald's, Merck, Microsoft Corp., Nike, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Travelers Companies, United Health Group, United Technologies, Verizon Communications, Visa, Wal-Mart Stores, and the Walt Disney Company.

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 5.5 percent in 2011, and increased 7.3 percent in 2012, and surged 26.5 percent in 2013. The 10-year average of the annual gains improved in 2013 to 6.1 percent from 5.9 percent in 2012.

 

Short Term Perspective

 

 

On a year-over-year basis, the Dow Jones Industrials was up 12.6 percent in September, compared to 15.4 percent in August.  

 

 

In September, the Dow Jones Industrials slipped 0.3 percent after jumping 3.2 percent the month before.   September was soft largely due to slowing global growth.