Stardate 20010910.1439 (On Screen): The single most widely followed stock average is the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 stocks. Like all selective averages, the member companies have changed over the years; originally it was a combination of the 30 largest industrial companies in the US (hence the name). But look at the list now:
Alcoa
American Express
Boeing
Citigroup
Caterpillar
Dupont
Disney
Eastman Kodak
General Electric
General Motors
Home Depot
Honeywell
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Intel
International Paper
Johnson & Johnson
JP Morgan
Coca Cola
McDonald's
3M
Philip Morris
Merck
Microsoft
Procter & Gamble
SBC Communications
AT&T
United Technologies
Wal-Mart
Exxon
Of those, only one third are actually what you'd think of as traditional smoke-stack industrial companies. Several of them are high tech (Intel, Microsoft, HP, Merck). But what the heck are Disney, Home Depot, McDonald's, Walmart, Citigroup and JP Morgan doing in a list of "industrials"? Maybe we need a new name for this. (On the other hand, there's a certain pleasing symmetry to having both Philip Morris and Merck in this list.) (discuss)
