Why isn’t Apple in the 30-member Dow Jones Industrial Average?

“It may be by far the most valuable American company but Apple Inc still can’t get into at least one exclusive club – the 30-member Dow Jones Industrial Average,” Odrigo Campos and Chuck Mikolajczak write for Reuters.

“That may not be a problem for the company behind the iPhone and the iPad, after all Apple shares recently hit record highs,” Campos and Mikolajczak write. “It is, though, hurting those who tie their investments to the performance of the venerable Dow, which was first calculated in 1896 and is still probably the best-known stock index in the world.”

“Had Apple been substituted for 29 of the 30 Dow components last June, the index would have been higher,” Campos and Mikolajczak write. “So why can’t a company that so dominates the consumer and technology worlds, and whose share price has climbed an astounding split-adjusted 3,500 percent since January 2000, get into an index that has gained just 55 percent in that period?”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: It is kind of nonsensical that Apple isn’t a Dow component, but that’s the Dow’s problem, not Apple’s.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]

5 Comments

  1. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been considered an antique for decades. Sorry News Corp.

    That’s why Apple doesn’t care and more modern investors pay attention to the OTHER stock market indicators, such as the S&P 500. Boohoo News Corp.

    1. Exactly, not much industry in the DJIA.

      More like a museum of has beens

      Original Dow Stocks

      Central Pacific Railroad
      Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Northern Pacific Railway (Preferred)
      Central Railroad of New Jersey
      Lake Shore Railway
      Pacific Mail Steamship
      Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad
      Louisville & Nashville Railroad
      Union Pacific Railroad
      Chicago & North Western Railway
      Missouri Pacific Railroad
      Western Union

      Dow Stocks in 1985

      Allied-Signal
      General Electric
      Owens-Illinois Glass
      Aluminum Company of America
      General Motors
      Philip Morris
      American Can
      Goodyear
      Procter & Gamble Company
      American Express Company
      Inco
      Sears Roebuck & Company
      AT&T
      International Business Machines
      Texaco
      Bethlehem Steel
      International Harvester
      Union Carbide
      Chevron Corporation
      International Paper
      United Technologies Corporation
      E. I. du Pont de Nemours
      McDonald’s Corporation
      U.S. Steel
      Eastman Kodak
      Merck
      Westinghouse Electric
      Exxon
      3M
      Woolworth

  2. AAPL is too big for the DJIA. If it were included, the index would basically be AAPL and the 29 dwarves, not an indicator of how industrial companies in general are doing.

    -jcr

  3. Wow, kinda stopped visiting MacDailyNews awhile ago because of the annoying ad servers. Just did so, and see things have only gotten worse. Way worse. These AdBlade ads are among the worst I’ve ever seen. Hasta luego, MDN. I am outta here for good.

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