what is the dow jones

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a stock market index that tracks 30 large, publicly-owned blue-chip companies trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq. The index was created by Charles Dow in 1896 along with his business partner, Edward Jones, to serve as a proxy for the broader U.S. economy. The DJIA is a price-weighted index, meaning that it gives more weighting to companies with more expensive stock. The DJIA is considered to be a gauge of the broader U.S. economy and is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity indexes. The DJIAs composition can change over time based on economic trends. The Dow Divisor is a constant that was created to address the simple average issue. The DJIA is one of the most-watched stock indexes in the world.