What does the Dow Jones Industrial Average primarily track in the U.S. stock market?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average primarily tracks 30 large U.S. companies.

Often called the Dow or DJIA, it is a price-weighted stock-market index maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices. Its components are selected to represent important areas of the U.S. economy, although the index is not a complete measure of every sector or listed company. The companies can change as the committee responsible for the index updates its composition.

The Dow was created by Charles Dow and Edward Jones and first published in 1896. Despite its name, modern components are not limited to industrial manufacturers. The index has included companies from sectors such as technology, finance, health care, and consumer goods.

Because it is price-weighted, a component with a higher share price has more influence on a one-point move than a lower-priced component. This differs from market-capitalization-weighted indexes such as the S&P 500.