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Shake-Up Coming to Dow Jones Industrial Average

By Janet Levaux

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NYSE stock traders NYSE stock traders (Photo: Jin Lee/Bloomberg)

S&P Dow Jones Indices said late Monday that it will change some components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average starting next Monday.

Say goodbye to Exxon Mobil, Pfizer and Raytheon Technologies, and say hello to Salesforce.com, Amgen and Honeywell International.

Exxon joined the Dow in 1928, Pfizer in 2004 and Raytheon earlier this year via its merger with United Technologies.

“ExxonMobil out of the DJIA. Incredible. I wonder which will be the first wind or solar company to join it,” said podcaster and energy analyst Chris Nedler on Twitter.

Why the Changes?

According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, Apple’s decision to split its stock 4:1 prompted the shifts, as the tech giant’s move reduced the index’s weight in the Global Industry Classification Standard Information Technology sector.

The changes announced Monday help offset this reduction. “They also help diversify the index by removing overlap between companies of similar scope and adding new types of businesses that better reflect the American economy,” the unit of S&P Global said in a press release.

The last time three firms were added to the Dow was in 2013, when Visa, Goldman Sachs Group and Nike pushed out Bank of America, Hewlett-Packard and Alcoa.

The planned adjustments will not disrupt the level of the index, which ended Monday at 28,309.08 — about 4% off its Feb. 12 record of $29,551.42.

The divisor used to calculate the index — based on the components’ prices on their respective home exchanges — will be revised before trading on Aug. 31 to prevent “any distortion in the index’s reflection of the portion of the U.S. stock market it is designed to measure,” says S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Bloomberg chart of new DJIA 30 members

Janet Levaux

@Think_JanetL