High Return Investments

Dow Jones Industrial Average

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is one of several stock market
indices created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company
founder Charles Dow. Dow compiled the DJIA index as a way to gauge the
performance of the industrial component of America's stock markets. It is
not technically an average, but a total of all the prices of its component stocks.

In 1884, the DJIA represented the average of twelve stocks representing
various important American industrial businesses. In 1916, the number of
stocks in the DJIA was increased to twenty, and finally to thirty in 1928.
On the day it was created, the value of the DJIA was 100.

On March 29, 1999 the average closed at 10006.78 which was the first time
the index closed above the 10,000 mark and on January 14, 2000 the average
closed at an the all-time peak of 11723. By mid-2002, it had returned to its
1998 level of 8000. On June 4, 2003, the average closed above 9000 for the
first time since August 22, 2002.

Many people criticize the DJIA because it is a price-weighted average, which
gives relatively higher-priced stocks more influence over the average than
their lower-priced counterparts. This can produce misleading results, as a
$1 increase in a lower-priced stock can be cancelled out by a $1 decrease in
a much higher-priced stock, even though the first stock may have experienced
a significantly larger percentage change. Additionally, the inclusion of
only 30 stocks in the average has brought on additional criticism of the
average, as the DJIA is widely used as an indicator of overall market
performance. Because of these issues, the S&P 500 is becoming more widely
quoted and used as a more realistic broad market performance indicator.

The individual components of the DJIA change from time to time. Of the
original twelve stocks on the 1884 average, only General Electric remains.

As of January 2003, the Dow Jones Industrial Average consists of the
following 30 companies:

   * Alcoa (Aluminum)
   * Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris) (Tobacco)
   * American Express (Financial services)
   * AT&T (Telecommunications)
   * Boeing (Aviation and aerospace)
   * Caterpillar Inc. (Heavy equipment)
   * Citigroup (Financial services)
   * Coca-Cola Co. (Beverages)
   * DuPont (chemicals)
   * Eastman Kodak (Photographic equipment)
   * Exxon Mobil Corp. (petroleum)
   * General Electric (Electronics, Financial services)
   * General Motors (Automobiles)
   * Hewlett-Packard (Computer hardware, Printers)
   * Home Depot (Home improvement)
   * Honeywell International (Electronics)
   * Intel Corp. (Microprocessors)
   * International Business Machines (Hardware, Software and services)
   * International Paper (Paper, Packaging)
   * J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. (Financial services)
   * Johnson & Johnson Corporation (Pharmaceuticals)
   * McDonald's Corporation (fast food franchise)
   * Merck and Company (Pharmaceuticals)
   * Microsoft Corporation (Software)
   * Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing(3M) (Materials, Electronics)
   * Procter and Gamble (Household supplies, Pharmaceuticals)
   * SBC Communications (Telecommunications)
   * United Technologies (Aerospace, Defense)
   * Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (retail)
   * Walt Disney Company (entertainment)

Investment FreshNews:

G7 finance chiefs to meet Friday in Washington: Treasury (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:42:02 GMT
The US Treasury said Monday that the finance chiefs of the Group of Seven industrialized nations will meet this week ahead of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

A.I.G. To Sell Thai Consumer Finance Unit (New York Times)
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:00:32 GMT
American International Group is to sell its Thai consumer finance businesses, including AIG Retail Bank and AIG Card, the head of the bank said on Monday.

European Finance Ministers Struggle to Agree on Crisis Response (Bloomberg)
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:37:24 GMT
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- European finance ministers struggled to agree on a coordinated response to the global financial crisis after European stocks dropped the most since 1987.

Brazil to Use International Reserves to Finance Trade (Update1) (Bloomberg)
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:39:18 GMT
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian central bank President Henrique Meirelles , seeking to shore up confidence after stocks and the currency plunged, said the government will use its record international reserves to finance exports and ease a credit crunch.

Council delays vote on hiring new finance director requesting more background information (Macon Telegraph)
Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:31:14 GMT
A Macon City Council committee today postponed its confirmation of Tom Barber as the city's next finance director.

Investment Resources: