Long Term Perspective

 

 

As of October 1, 2014, the 15 utilities included in this index were: AES Corp., American Electric Power Co. Inc., American Water, 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 jumped 26.0 percent in 2014 after increasing 8.3 percent in 2013. The 10-year average growth rate in the Utilities average was little changed at 7.6 percent in 2014, compared to 7.5 percent in 2013.

 

Short Term Perspective

 

 

The Dow Utilities index was up 8.3 percent in July after sliding 4.5 percent in June when compared with a year ago.

 

 

The Utilities index rebounded with a 6.1 percent gain in July, almost, but not quite recovering all of June's 6.2 percent loss. Utilities are a defensive sector and can lose ground to more aggressive sectors when the economy improves.