Goldman Sachs, Visa and Nike Added to Dow Jones Industrial Index: HP, Alcoa and Bank of America Out

At the close of business this Friday Goldman Sachs, Visa and Nike will be added to Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and HP, Alcoa and Bank of America will be dropped. The DJIA is a not something that deserves attention in my opinion, but it gets it. The index of 30 large stocks is less useful than say the S & P 500 Index with I prefer.

The “industrial” heritage (represented by the name) is still visible but as the economy has changed the makeup of stocks has moved to reflect the growing importance of services.

The 30 stocks in the DJIA will be:

• American Express Company – AXP
• AT&T – T
• Boeing – BA
• Caterpillar – CAT
• Chevron – CVX
• Citigroup – C
• Coca-Cola – KO
• Du Pont – DD
• Exxon Mobil – XOM
• General Electric Company – GE
• General Motors – GM
• Goldman Sachs – GS
• Home Depot – HD
• Intel – INTC
• International Business Machines – IBM
• Johnson & Johnson – JNJ
• J. P. Morgan Chase – JPM
• Kraft Foods – KFT
• McDonald’s – MCD
• Merck – MRK
• Microsoft – MSFT
• Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing – MMM
• Nike – NIKE
• Pfizer – PFE
• Procter & Gamble – PG
• United Technologies – UTX
• Verizon Communications – VZ
• Visa – V
• Wal-Mart Stores – WMT
• Walt Disney – DIS

Related: GM and Citigroup Replaced by Cisco and Travelers in the Dow (2009) – Bank of America and Chevron replace Altria and Honeywell in the DJIA – Stock Markets Down $30 Trillion for 2008