The Dow Jones Industrial Average, also known simply as the Dow or the Dow Jones, is a stock market index that tracks the performance of 30 large, publicly-traded companies based in the United States. The index is named after Charles Dow, who co-founded Dow Jones & Company, the company that publishes The Wall Street Journal and created the index in 1896.
The Dow is a price-weighted index, which means that the value of the index is calculated based on the prices of the stocks it tracks, rather than their market capitalizations. The stocks in the Dow are chosen by the editors of The Wall Street Journal, and they are meant to represent a broad range of industries, including financials, industrials, technology, and consumer goods.
The Dow is one of the oldest and most well-known stock market indexes in the world, and it is often used as a barometer for the overall performance of the stock market. However, because it only tracks 30 companies, it is not considered to be a comprehensive measure of the market, and many investors and analysts use other indexes, such as the S&P 500 or the NASDAQ, to get a more complete picture of the market.
In addition to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones & Company also publishes a number of other stock market indexes, including the Dow Jones Transportation Average, the Dow Jones Utility Average, and the Dow Jones Composite Average. These indexes track the performance of other sectors of the market, such as transportation, utilities, and the broader market.
