New name for the Dow?

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The Dow Jones industrial average might be up for sale by its owner, News Corp., a move that conceivably could result in a name change for the 125-year-old stock market barometer.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported this afternoon that News Corp. was considering selling its stock index business and has reached out to potential buyers. Given that the Journal is owned by News Corp., the sourcing on this story should be a notch above the usual anonymous informant.

News Corp., which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch and also owns the Fox television network, 20th Century Fox movie studio and media outlets in Europe and Australia, declined to comment.

Dow Jones & Co., which News Corp. acquired in 2007, offers thousands of stock indexes that are used as benchmarks by investors and licensed for use by mutual funds and other investment products.

The Dow industrials were introduced as a basket of 11 stocks in 1884. The index has 30 members today, most of them war-horse corporate stalwarts like Microsoft Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The Dow is up 8.3% this year but is down 33% from its all-time closing high of 14,164.53, set on Oct 9, 2007.

Seeing how “the Dow” remains a virtual synonym for the U.S. stock market, a new owner might be hesitant to ditch the name. But I used to think that about Comiskey Park, too....

-- Martin Zimmerman