Long Term Perspective

 

 

As of July 17, 2013, the 15 utilities included in this index were: AES Corp., American Electric Power Co. Inc., CenterPoint Energy Inc., Consolidated Edison Inc., Dominion Resources Inc. (Virginia), Duke Energy Corp., Edison International, Exelon Corp., FirstEnergy Corp., NextEra Energy, NiSource Inc., PG&E Corp., Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., Southern Co., and Williams Cos.

 

The Dow Utilities Average rebounded 8.3 percent in 2013 after dipping 2.5 percent in 2012. The 10-year average growth rate in the Utilities average decelerated to 7.5 percent in 2013 from 9.1 percent the year before.

 

Short Term Perspective

 

 

The Dow Utilities index was up 14.3 percent in September on a year-ago basis, compared to up 18.1 percent the prior month.

 

 

The Utilities index declined 2.3 percent in September after rebounding 4.6 percent the month before.   Utilities are a defensive sector and can lose ground to more aggressive sectors when the economy improves.