Dow Jones Transportation Average

The Dow Jones Transportation Average (also called the "Dow Jones Transports" DJTA) is a U.S. stock market index of the transportation sector, and is the most widely recognized gauge of the American transportation sector.^[1] It is the oldest stock index still in use, even older than its better-known relative, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).

Components

The index is a running average of the stock prices of twenty transportation corporations, with each stock's price weighted to adjust for stock splits and other factors.^[2] As a result, it can change at any time the markets are open. The figure mentioned in news reports is usually the figure derived from the prices at the close of the market for the day.

Changes in the index's composition are rare, and generally occur only after corporate acquisitions or other dramatic shifts in a component's core business. Should such an event require that one component be replaced, the entire index is reviewed.^[3]

Today, the index consists of the following 20 companies:^{[4] [5]}

• Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. (ALEX) (marine transportation)
• AMR Corporation (AMR) (airlines)
• Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI) (railroads)
• C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. (CHRW) (trucking)
• Con-Way, Inc. (CNW) (trucking)
• Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL) (airlines)
• CSX Corp. (CSX) (railroads)
• Delta Air Lines. (DAL) (airlines)
• Expeditors International (EXPD) (delivery services)
• FedEx Corporation (FDX) (delivery services)
• GATX Corp. (GMT) (business support services)
• JB Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT)(trucking)
• JetBlue Airways Corp. (JBLU) (airlines)
• Landstar System, Inc. (LSTR) (trucking)
• Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) (railroads)
• Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. (OSG) (marine transportation)
• Ryder System, Inc. (R) (transportation services)
• Southwest Airlines, Inc. (LUV) (airlines)
• Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) (railroads)
• United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) (delivery services)

As of December 11th, 2009, Delta Airlines will replace YRC Worldwide^[6]

History

The average was created on July 3, 1884 by Charles Dow, co-founder of Dow Jones & Company, as part of the "Customer's Afternoon Letter". At its inception, it consisted of eleven transportation-related companies: nine railroads and two non-rail companies. They were the following:

• Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway
• Chicago and North Western Railway
• Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
• Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway
• Louisville and Nashville Railroad
• Missouri Pacific Railway
• New York Central Railroad
• Northern Pacific Railroad preferred stock
• Pacific Mail Steamship Company (not a railroad)
• Union Pacific Railway
• Western Union (not a railroad)

As a result of the dominating presence of railroads, the Transportation Average was often referred to as "rails" in financial discussions in the early and middle part of the 20th Century.

References

See also

• Dow Jones Utility Average
• Dow Theory

External links

• Yahoo! Finance page for ^DJT
• Bloomberg page for TRAN:IND
• Dow Jones & Company website
• Yahoo: Chart of DJTA performance (1928-present)
• Dow Transports Lagging the Dow Industrials - A Fundamental Sign the Economy is Struggling
• chart of DJT vs SPX from Yahoo! Finance