The life and times of the original Dow Dozen

Posted Mar 5th 2009 11:40AM by Beth Gaston Moon
Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), General Electric (GE), DJIA

Earlier this week, something a bit odd happened. With beleaguered General Electric shares (NYSE: GE) retreating sharply, the company's market cap has declined. As of Thursday morning, it's at $70.7 billion, placing it, for example, below Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), with a market cap of $81.19 billion. That's right ... the venerable conglomerate, maker of aircraft engines, locomotives, and a host of other products, has been outsized by a personal computer company.

While this development may just be a blip on the radar of a very tumultuous time in the stock market, it signals a changing tide that began decades ago. GE is the last member standing of the original 12 members of the Dow. Founded in 1896, the average represented 12 of the most significant American companies. Here's what has happened to the rest of them:

American Cotton Oil Company - Ancestor of Bestfoods, acquired by Unilever (NYSE: UL)
American Sugar - Became Domino Foods, Inc.
American Tobacco - Separated in 1911due to antitrust action
Chicago Gas - People's Gas acquired in 1897
Distilling and Cattle Feeding - Became Millennium Chemicals (part of LyondellBasell, delisted from the NYSE in December, 2007)
Laclede Gas - Still trading, removed from Dow in 1899
National Lead - Became NL Industries, removed from Dow in 1916
North American - Broken up in 1940s
Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad - Acquired by U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) in 1907
U.S. Leather (preferred) - Dissolved in 1952
United States Rubber - Became Uniroyal in 1961, which was ultimately bought by Michelin in 1990

And now, GE is trading at levels not seen since Boyz II Men and Michael Bolton dominated the airwaves (that's the early 1990s). Will its name, legacy, and reputation keep it safely in the Dow for decades to come? Or will it also eventually fall by the wayside?

Beth Gaston Moon works for WeSeed.com, "The stock market for the rest of us." The above comments are not intended as trading or investment advice.

Tags: apple, dow jones, dow jones industrial average, DowJones, DowJonesIndustrialAverage, general electric, GeneralElectric

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-05-2009 @ 8:21PM

al coholic said...

Companies in the Dow and S&P 500 whose stock does poorly are routinely replaced by stronger, up and coming companies. This distorts their returns and overstates their true returns.