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What Were the Original Stocks in the DJIA?

L. S. Wynn
By L. S. Wynn
Updated: May 16, 2024
Views: 16,485
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Dow Jones company, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, presented its first average of U.S. stocks on 3 July 1884. Twelve years later, the editors picked 12 stocks that were intended to serve as a proxy for the market as a whole. The index is reassessed every few years to ensure that the average reflects the "blue-chip" sector of the market.

The original Dow Jones Industrial Average, or DJIA consisted of 12 stocks, and the list gives a great insight into the nature of the economy at the time:

  • American Cotton Oil
  • American Sugar
  • American Tobacco
  • Chicago Gas
  • Distilling and Cattle Feeding
  • General Electric
  • Laclede Gas
  • National Lead
  • Tennessee Coal & Iron
  • North American
  • U.S. Leather
  • U.S. Rubber

In 1916 the number of stocks making up the DJIA was increased to 20. The 30-stock average, which is the current number of Dow components, made its debut in 1928. General Electric is the only original member of the index that is also a current member, although it dropped out and was reinstanted twice between 1898 to 1907.

Here is a list of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as of 1 January 2004:

  • Alcoa
  • Altria Group
  • American Express
  • AT&T
  • Boeing
  • Caterpillar
  • Citigroup
  • Coca-Cola
  • Disney
  • DuPont
  • Eastman Kodak
  • ExxonMobil
  • General Electric
  • General Motors
  • Hewlett-Packard
  • Home Depot
  • Honeywell
  • Intel
  • IBM
  • International Paper
  • Johnson & Johnson
  • J.P. Morgan Chase
  • McDonald's
  • Merck
  • Microsoft
  • 3M
  • Procter & Gamble
  • SBC Communications
  • United Technologies
  • Wal-Mart
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