The Dow Indexes

Dow Jones was founded by Charles Henry Dow, Edward Davis Jones and Charles Milford Bergstresser on Wall Street in New York. At that time the company was called Dow, Jones & Company and the company produced and delivered daily news bulletins called to subscribers in the Wall Street area.

In 1884 Charles H. Dow introduced the first Dow Jones stock index which was based on the nine railroads and which later became known as Dow Jones Transport index (DJT index). In 1896 the second, Dow Jones Industrials Average index (DJI Index), was started to be tracked. Later at the beginning of the 20th century, the Dow Jones Utilities index (DJU Index) was set and introduced to the stock market world.

The DJI, DJT and DJU indexes are selected, maintained and reviewed by editors of The Wall Street Journal. A stock typically is selected only if it is one of the biggest and actively traded companies on the U.S Stock Market. The Dow Jones averages are price weighted therefore affected only by changes in the stocks' prices, in contrast with other types of indexes' weightings where the index price is affected by price changes and changes in the number of shares outstanding.

The Dow Jones Transport Index (DJT) Index

Even the Dow Jones Industrial Average is one of the best-known U.S. stock index, the Dow Jones Transportation Average has an honour to be one of the oldest stock market indexes.

The DJT, assembled in 1884 by was composed of nine railroads, including the New York Central and Union Pacific, and two non-rails, Pacific Mail Steamship and Western Union.

Over the decades, railroads have been joined in the average by the likes of Delta Air Lines, Federal Express and Ryder System.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) Index

Charles H. Dow unveiled his industrial stock average on May 26, 1896. At that time the Dow Jones Industrials comprises 11 stocks, most of which were railroad companies.

Until 1896 the Dow index was published irregularly. However, on Oct. 7, 1896 the Dow Jones Industrials index was expended to 20 stocks and started to be published on a daily basis in The Wall Street Journal. In 1928 the number of stocks included into the Dow index was increased to 30, where it remains.

The 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index are selected as the biggest publicly traded U.S. companies in their industries. At the end of 1999, these 30 stocks from the DJI index covered about 28 percent of all U.S. stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average Index is the most-analyzed index in the world.

The Dow Jones Utilities (DJU) Index

The Dow Jones Utility average index was introduced in January 1929 and is the youngest of the three Dow Jones Averages.

The utility average index started with 18 stocks. On July 1, 1929, the number the number of DJU stocks was increased to 20, yet, on June 2, 1938 this number was reduced to 15 stocks, where it remains ever since.