The Global Dow

The Global Dow is an equal-weighted stock index. It is composed of the stocks of 150 top companies from around the world as selected by Dow Jones editors and based on the companies' long history of success and popularity among investors. The Global Dow is designed to reflect the global stock market and gives preferences to companies with global reach.

The Global Dow includes blue-chip companies such as 3M, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Kraft, Monsanto and General Electric. It includes stocks from both developed and emerging markets because the index is meant to reflect both the present and the future of the stock market. The Global Dow was introduced in 2008. As with the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Global Dow stocks are selected by a committee. On the committee is the head of Dow Jones Indexes research, the managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, and the head of CME Group Research.

The Global Dow is bigger than the Dow Jones Industrial Average with 150 stocks as opposed to 30. All of the stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial Average are included in the Global Dow as well as transportation and utility averages. Another difference between the Dow Jones and the Global Dow is that the Global Dow's components are weighted equally rather than by price, which means that price movements of larger stocks have no greater impact on index performance than the price movements of smaller stocks.

The Global Dow index was created for institutional investors who want to diversify their investments around the globe. The United States' share of investments and growth potential has diminished and other countries, particularly those in Asia, are experiencing rapid growth. Companies in these high-growth regions are attractive to investors. Emerging countries that are included in the index, with a total weight of 9 percent, according to ThisMatter.com, are the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and Mexico.

The Global Dow tracks leading companies from around the world in all industries. The companies are selected based on their potential as well as size and reputation. The Global Dow is calculated by Dow Jones Indexes, and reports are in real time. Current and closing values are show in real time at www.djindexes.com and are published in the Wall Street Journal. As of December 31, 2000, the Base Value is 1000.