The 30 Stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow contains exactly 30 stocks
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, often called "the Dow," tracks 30 large U.S. companies. These are not all the biggest companies in America — the S&P 500 includes 500 large companies, and the Nasdaq includes thousands more. The Dow's 30 are chosen by editors at S&P Dow Jones Indices, a division of S&P Global, based on company size, how widely they trade, and how long they have been publicly traded.
The number 30 has stayed the same since 1928. When a company in the Dow falls on hard times or gets bought out, S&P Dow Jones Indices replaces it with another large company. This happens roughly once a year, though sometimes several years pass without a change.
Key Takeaways
- The Dow tracks 30 large U.S. companies chosen and maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, not a fixed list that never changes.
- Companies are removed and replaced when they no longer meet the Dow's standards for size, trading volume, or stability.
- The Dow is weighted by stock price, meaning a $200 stock has more influence on the index than a $50 stock, even if the companies are similar in size.
- The 30 stocks span industries including finance, technology, healthcare, energy, and consumer goods, but they do not represent the entire U.S. economy.
Which companies are in the Dow right now
The current 30 Dow stocks include Apple, Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, Coca-Cola, Walmart, Boeing, Goldman Sachs, American Express, Visa, McDonald's, Intel, Chevron, Procter & Gamble, Home Depot, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Disney, Nike, Caterpillar, Verizon, and others. The full list changes occasionally, and you can find the current membership on the S&P Dow Jones Indices website or on financial sites like Yahoo Finance or MarketWatch.
These companies are household names for a reason: they are mature, profitable, and trade in high volume every day. Most have been around for decades. A startup or a company that trades only a few thousand shares per day would not be added to the Dow, even if it grew very large.
How the Dow is weighted and why it matters
The Dow is a price-weighted index, which means the stocks with the highest share prices have the most influence on the index's movement. If one stock trades at $300 per share and another at $100 per share, the $300 stock moves the index more, regardless of the company's total market value.
This is different from the S&P 500, which is market-cap weighted — meaning the largest companies by total value have the most influence. Because of this difference, the Dow and the S&P 500 can move in different directions on the same day. A sharp move in a high-priced Dow stock might push the Dow up while the broader S&P 500 stays flat.
Why investors pay attention to the Dow
The Dow is the oldest and most famous stock index in the United States. It was created in 1896 and has been tracked continuously ever since. Because of this history and its simplicity — just 30 stocks instead of hundreds — it is often used as a shorthand for "how the stock market is doing" in news reports and everyday conversation.
However, the Dow does not represent the entire U.S. stock market. It excludes small and mid-sized companies, most technology stocks (though it does include Apple and Microsoft), and entire sectors like real estate investment trusts. If you own a diversified portfolio, your returns will likely differ from the Dow's, and that is normal and expected.
When and why Dow stocks get replaced
S&P Dow Jones Indices removes a stock from the Dow when the company no longer fits the criteria: it may have become too small, its trading volume may have dropped, or it may have faced serious financial trouble. General Electric was removed in 2018 after more than a century in the index. Hewlett-Packard was removed in 2013. Citigroup was removed in 2009 during the financial crisis.
When a stock is removed, S&P Dow Jones Indices announces the change in advance and names the replacement. The change takes effect after the market closes on a specific date. Investors who own the removed stock are not forced to sell — they simply own a stock that is no longer part of the Dow.
How the Dow compares to other indexes
The S&P 500 includes 500 large U.S. companies and is market-cap weighted, so it gives more weight to the largest companies by total value. The Nasdaq-100 includes 100 large companies, many of them technology firms. The Russell 2000 tracks 2,000 smaller U.S. companies. Each index answers a different question about how the market is performing.
If you are building a portfolio, you do not need to choose between these indexes — many investors own funds that track all of them. An S&P 500 fund automatically includes all 30 Dow stocks plus 470 others, so you get the Dow's companies as part of a broader holding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I buy a fund that tracks just the Dow?
Yes. Several exchange-traded funds (ETFs) track the Dow, including the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (ticker: DIA) and the iShares Core Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (ticker: IVV). These funds hold all 30 Dow stocks in the same proportions as the index itself.
Why does the Dow only have 30 stocks when there are thousands of U.S. companies?
Thirty stocks is enough to show broad trends in the largest, most stable U.S. companies. The Dow was designed to be simple and easy to track — a quick snapshot of the market's health. If it included hundreds of stocks, it would be harder to follow and would overlap too much with other indexes like the S&P 500.
Does the Dow include international companies?
No. The Dow tracks only U.S. companies, though many of them earn revenue overseas. If you want exposure to international stocks, you would need a separate fund or index that focuses on non-U.S. markets.
What happens to my Dow fund if a stock gets removed?
The fund manager automatically sells the removed stock and buys the replacement on the day the change takes effect. You do not have to do anything. Your fund's value may shift slightly on that day, but the fund continues to track the Dow as it is now, not as it was.