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 March 18, 2015, the 30 industrials in this index were: 3M Company, American Express, Apple  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 increased 7.3 percent in 2012, surged 26.5 percent in 2013, and increased 7.5 percent in 2014. The 10-year average of the annual gains edged up in 2014 to 6.5 percent from 6.1 percent in 2013.

 

Short Term Perspective

 

 

At the end of July 2015, the Dow Jones Industrials were up 6.8 percent, up from June's annual increase of 4.7 percent.

 

 

On the month in July, the Dow Jones Industrials edged up 0.4 percent after sliding 2.2 percent the month before.