Dow industrials lineup to change
The Dow Jones industrial average is getting its first makeover since April 2004.
Dow Jones & Co. said Monday it would add Bank of America Corp. and Chevron Corp. to the 30-stock index Feb. 19, and kick out Altria Group Inc. and Honeywell International Inc.
The Dow index’s keepers said the revisions were prompted by Altria’s spinoff of Kraft Foods last March and the planned divestiture of the company’s foreign tobacco unit.
The additions of Bank of America, the biggest U.S. bank by market value, and Chevron, the country’s second-largest fuel producer, reflect the growing importance of financial and energy companies in the U.S. stock market, Dow Jones said.
The Dow index currently has just one energy stock -- Exxon Mobil Corp. But it already has four financial stocks: American Express Co., American International Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Dow Jones said it decided to drop manufacturing company Honeywell because it is “the smallest of the industrials [in the index] in terms of revenue and earnings.”
Chevron, formerly Standard Oil of California, had been in the Dow from 1930 to 1999.
The Dow is a price-weighted index, which means its highest-priced stocks have the largest effect on its day-to-day moves.
Of the four stocks involved in the shuffle announced Monday, Bank of America slipped 2 cents to $42.14, Chevron gained $1.17 to $80.43, Altria fell 67 cents to $72.42 and Honeywell lost 19 cents to $57.64.
