Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones, or simply the Dow, is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.
The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity indices. It is price-weighted, unlike other common indices such as the Nasdaq Composite or S&P 500, which use market capitalization. The primary pitfall of this approach is that a stock's price—not the size of the company—determines its relative importance in the index. For example, as of March 2025, Goldman Sachs represented the largest component of the index with a market capitalization of ~$167B. In contrast, Apple's market capitalization was ~$3.3T at the time, but it fell outside the top 10 components in the index.
The DJIA also contains fewer stocks than many other major indices, which could heighten risk due to stock concentration. However, some investors believe it could be less volatile when the market is rapidly rising or falling due to its components being well-established large-cap companies.
The value of the index can also be calculated as the sum of the stock prices of the companies included in the index, divided by a factor, which is approximately 0.162 as of 2025. The factor is changed whenever a constituent company undergoes a stock split so that the value of the index is unaffected by the stock split.
First calculated on May 26, 1896, the index is the second-oldest among U.S. market indices, after the Dow Jones Transportation Average. It was created by Charles Dow, co-founder of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones & Company, and named after him and his business associate, statistician Edward Jones.
The index is maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, an entity majority-owned by S&P Global. Its components are selected by a committee that includes three representatives from S&P Dow Jones Indices and two representatives from the Wall Street Journal. The ten components with the largest dividend yields are commonly referred to as the Dogs of the Dow. As with all stock prices, the prices of the constituent stocks and consequently the value of the index itself are affected by the performance of the respective companies as well as macroeconomic factors.
Components
the Dow Jones Industrial Average consists of the following companies, with a weighting as shown:| Company | Exchange | Symbol | Industry | Date added | Notes | Index weighting |
| 3M | NYSE | Conglomerate | 1976-08-09 | As Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing | 2.17% | |
| American Express | NYSE | Financial services | 1982-08-30 | 4.31% | ||
| Amgen | NASDAQ | Biopharmaceutical | 2020-08-31 | 4.14% | ||
| Amazon | NASDAQ | Retailing | 2024-02-26 | 2.99% | ||
| Apple | NASDAQ | Information technology | 2015-03-19 | 2.92% | ||
| Boeing | NYSE | Aerospace and defense | 1987-03-12 | 3.03% | ||
| Caterpillar | NYSE | Construction and mining | 1991-05-06 | 5.13% | ||
| Chevron | NYSE | Petroleum industry | 2008-02-19 | Also 1930-07-18 to 1999-11-01 | 2.01% | |
| Cisco | NASDAQ | Information technology | 2009-06-08 | 0.92% | ||
| Coca-Cola | NYSE | Drink industry | 1987-03-12 | Also 1932-05-26 to 1935-11-20 | 1.04% | |
| Disney | NYSE | Broadcasting and entertainment | 1991-05-06 | 1.63% | ||
| Goldman Sachs | NYSE | Financial services | 2013-09-23 | 8.79% | ||
| Home Depot | NYSE | Home Improvement | 1999-11-01 | 5.35% | ||
| Honeywell | NASDAQ | Conglomerate | 2020-08-31 | AlliedSignal and Honeywell | 3.27% | |
| IBM | NYSE | Information technology | 1979-06-29 | Also 1932-05-26 to 1939-03-04 | 3.77% | |
| Johnson & Johnson | NYSE | Pharmaceutical industry | 1997-03-17 | 2.24% | ||
| JPMorgan Chase | NYSE | Financial services | 1991-05-06 | 3.83% | ||
| McDonald's | NYSE | Food industry | 1985-10-30 | 4.57% | ||
| Merck | NYSE | Pharmaceutical industry | 1979-06-29 | 1.11% | ||
| Microsoft | NASDAQ | Information technology | 1999-11-01 | 6.69% | ||
| Nike | NYSE | Clothing industry | 2013-09-23 | 0.90% | ||
| Nvidia | NASDAQ | Information technology | 2024-11-08 | 2.02% | ||
| Procter & Gamble | NYSE | Fast-moving consumer goods | 1932-05-26 | 2.46% | ||
| Salesforce | NYSE | Information technology | 2020-08-31 | 3.88% | ||
| Sherwin-Williams | NYSE | Specialty chemicals | 2024-11-08 | 5.19% | ||
| Travelers Companies, Inc. | NYSE | Insurance | 2009-06-08 | 3.98% | ||
| UnitedHealth Group | NYSE | Managed health care | 2012-09-24 | 4.34% | ||
| Verizon | NYSE | Telecommunications industry | 2004-04-08 | 0.63% | ||
| Visa | NYSE | Financial services | 2013-09-23 | 5.28% | ||
| Walmart | NASDAQ | Retailing | 1997-03-17 | 1.41% |
| Companies | Combined Percentage |
| 1st to 5th | 31.30% |
| 6th to 10th | 22.49% |
| 11th to 15th | 18.73% |
| 16th to 20th | 13.64% |
| 21st to 25th | 9.24% |
| 26th to 30th | 4.60% |
| Companies | Combined Percentage |
| Top 5 | 31.30% |
| Top 10 | 53.79% |
| Top 15 | 72.52% |
| Top 20 | 86.16% |
| Top 25 | 95.40% |
| All 30 | 100.00% |
Former components
As of November 8, 2024, the components of the DJIA have changed 59 times since its beginning on May 26, 1896. General Electric had the longest presence on the index, beginning in the original index in 1896 and ending in 2018, but was dropped and re-added twice between 1898 and 1907. Changes to the index since 1991 are as follows:- On May 6, 1991, Caterpillar Inc., J.P. Morgan & Co., and The Walt Disney Company replaced Navistar, Primerica, and U.S. Steel.
- On March 17, 1997, Travelers Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, and Walmart replaced Westinghouse Electric, Texaco, Bethlehem Steel, and F. W. Woolworth Company.
- On November 1, 1999, Microsoft, Intel, SBC Communications, and Home Depot replaced Goodyear Tire, Sears Roebuck, Union Carbide, and Chevron Corporation. Intel and Microsoft became the first and second companies traded on the Nasdaq to be part of the Dow.
- On April 8, 2004, American International Group, Pfizer, and Verizon Communications replaced AT&T Corporation, Kodak, and International Paper.
- On February 19, 2008, Chevron Corporation and Bank of America replaced Altria Group and Honeywell. Chevron was previously a Dow component from July 18, 1930, to November 1, 1999. During Chevron's absence, its split-adjusted price per share went from $44 to $85, while the price of petroleum rose from $24 to $100 per barrel.
- On September 22, 2008, Kraft Foods Inc. replaced American International Group in the index.
- On June 8, 2009, The Travelers Companies and Cisco Systems replaced Motors Liquidation Company and Citigroup. Cisco became the third company traded on the NASDAQ to be part of the Dow.
- On September 24, 2012, UnitedHealth Group replaced Kraft Foods Inc. following Kraft's split into Mondelez International and Kraft Foods.
- On September 23, 2013, Goldman Sachs, Nike, Inc., and Visa Inc. replaced Alcoa, Bank of America, and Hewlett-Packard.
- On March 19, 2015, Apple Inc. replaced AT&T, which had been a component of the DJIA since November 1916. Apple became the fourth company traded on the NASDAQ to be part of the Dow.
- On September 1, 2017, DowDuPont replaced DuPont. DowDuPont was formed by the merger of Dow Chemical Company with DuPont.
- On June 26, 2018, Walgreens Boots Alliance replaced General Electric, which had been a component of the DJIA since November 1907, after being part of the inaugural index in May 1896 and much of the 1896 to 1907 period.
- On April 2, 2019, Dow Inc. replaced DowDuPont. Dow, Inc. is a spin-off of DowDuPont, itself a merger of Dow Chemical Company and DuPont.
- On April 6, 2020, Raytheon Technologies replaced United Technologies. Raytheon is the name of the combination of United Technologies and the Raytheon Company, which merged as of April 3, 2020. The newly combined conglomerate does not include previous subsidiaries Carrier Global or Otis Worldwide.
- On August 31, 2020, Amgen, Honeywell, and Salesforce.com replaced ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and Raytheon Technologies.
- On February 26, 2024, Amazon replaced Walgreens Boots Alliance.
- On November 8, 2024, Nvidia replaced Intel, and Sherwin-Williams replaced Dow Inc.