Dow Jones Industrial Average Index (DJIA, DJI)

How Price Weighting Works

The Dow adds up the share prices of its 30 members and divides the total by a divisor. S&P Dow Jones Indices, which maintains the index, adjusts that divisor after stock splits and membership changes so the index level does not jump. A stock trading at $800 therefore moves the index eight times as much as a stock at $100. Company size plays no part.

The holdings table above shows the effect. On September 10, 2026, Goldman Sachs had the largest weight at 11.61%, followed by Caterpillar at 9.17%. Nvidia, one of the most valuable listed companies in the world, weighed 2.49%. The figures come from the holdings of a UCITS ETF on the index, so they can differ slightly from the official index weights.

A Short History

Charles Dow first published the average in May 1896 with 12 companies. It has had 30 members since 1928. A committee decides on additions and removals; there is no fixed rule for when a company enters or leaves.

What the Chart Shows

The index itself is calculated only while the New York Stock Exchange is open. For that reason the chart uses E-mini Dow futures (ticker YM) from CME Group, which trade almost around the clock on weekdays. Each point is the daily settlement price of the most actively traded contract. When volume shifts to the next expiry month, the series switches contracts, and the return figures are chained across those roll dates. Futures and index sit slightly apart, mainly because of interest rates and expected dividends until expiry. The latest point is the settlement of the previous session, not a real-time quote.

Dow Jones and S&P 500

With 30 stocks, the Dow covers a far smaller part of the US market than the S&P 500 with about 500 companies weighted by market value. The sector mix also differs: on the same date, financials made up about 28% of the Dow and about 12% of the S&P 500. The S&P 500 vs. Dow Jones comparison puts both indices side by side.

ETFs on the Dow

The best-known US fund on the index is the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF Trust (ticker DIA), listed since January 1998. Private investors in the EU generally cannot buy US-domiciled ETFs, because these funds do not publish the key information document (KID) that the EU’s PRIIPs regulation requires. UCITS ETFs such as the one listed above track the index from Europe, with their costs shown next to each fund.