Yet again, it is time to rain on the parade of the many people who are excited by the new high set on Tuesday by the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The rally in US stocks is impressive, however you measure it. But the Dow remains a fatally flawed index, and there is no reason why anyone should pay any attention to it. I said this as the Dow hit landmarks back in 2006 and 2007. Here goes again.
As an index of only 30 stocks, the Dow is not broadly diversified and is not representative of the US stock market as a whole (the S&P 500, by far the world’s most widely followed index, is more important for that purpose). Its stocks are not uniformly large enough to qualify as a “mega-cap” index (try the Russell Top 50 instead). Neither are they sufficiently dominated by industrials (despite the name) to qualify as an industrial index (the S&P 500 industrials sub-index might work better for that). Read more
James Mackintosh is the Financial Times' Investment Editor, writing and presenting the daily Short View column and video. In 16 years at the FT his posts have included comment editor, motor industry editor and hedge funds correspondent, as well as spells in the Parliamentary lobby and Paris. He was the first reporter hired for FT.com, joining two weeks before it launched.
John Authers is the Financial Times' Senior Investment Columnist, writing the Saturday Long View and a regular Monday column. In a 22-year career at the FT, his previous posts have included global head of the Lex column, investment editor, US markets editor, Mexico City bureau chief and US banking correspondent. His latest book is The Fearful Rise of Markets. 