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Think the Dow Jones industrial average includes the biggest companies in the United States? Think again.
While the index has moved away from its 19th-century roots in the industrial economy, its membership is much more static than the market as a whole. In fact, its membership changes less than once every two years.
That means there are nearly as many $100-billion (U.S.) market capitalization companies that aren't in the Dow (13) than are (19).
Apple Inc., which until a recent slide had overtaken Exxon Mobil as the most-valuable company in the U.S.? Not a member. Google Inc., and Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which rank third and fourth? Not members, either.
The Dow has Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., but it doesn't have Wells Fargo & Co. Inc., which is currently the country's most-valuable bank.
And the Dow has two components that don't even rank among the 100 most-valuable members of the Standard & Poor's 500: Travelers Cos. Inc. at 107 through Monday's trading, and Alcoa Inc., No. 345, with just $8.9-billion in market cap.
Click here to see the 13 companies that have passed $100-billion in market cap but aren't Dow members, with their market-cap rank among S&P 500 members.
David Milstead