NEW YORK, Nov. 11, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, today announced the launch of The Global Dow, a blue-chip representation of the world's leading companies as selected by editors of Dow Jones & Company. The Wall Street Journal editors and Dow Jones Indexes experts gathered at the Dow Jones offices in midtown Manhattan today to unveil and discuss the chosen components.
The Global Dow measures the performance of 150 stocks of companies that are established global leaders as well as those poised for future global leadership.
"The turmoil of recent weeks has highlighted, among other things, how the global economy has converged and the continuing rise to prominence of emerging countries," said Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and editor-in-chief for all of Dow Jones. "The Global Dow will recognize smaller, vibrant companies in emerging markets and in promising new sectors as the new corporate forerunners alongside their more established peers."
"From a solar power company in Norway to a telecommunications enterprise in India, the objective of The Global Dow is to measure the performance of 150 blue-chip stocks worldwide. In Charles Dow's day, tracking the stock market was a domestic undertaking. Today, equity markets are global in scope and more intertwined than ever," said John A. Prestbo, editor and executive director, Dow Jones Indexes. "In the tradition of Charles Dow, selecting components of The Global Dow is entrusted to senior Dow Jones editors, who direct the world's most reputable team of financial journalists."
The index universe is defined as all publicly traded securities in markets that are open to foreign investment. Dow Jones editors use their editorial judgement and expertise in choosing components for The Global Dow. Among the criteria they considered were companies' size, reputation and importance in the global economy. They chose stocks from both developed and emerging markets and from new as well as established sectors. Thus, The Global Dow includes companies that are driving the global economy today and some that are poised to do so in the future.
Stocks in The Global Dow are equally weighted and are rebalanced annually in September. For the sake of continuity, composition changes will be rare and typically will occur following corporate acquisitions or other significant changes in a component company's core business. When one component is replaced, all of them will be reviewed. As a result, several component changes may be implemented simultaneously.
The largest three components by float-adjusted market capitalization in The Global Dow are Exxon Mobil Corp. (U.S., Oil & Gas), Procter & Gamble Co. (U.S., Consumer Goods) and General Electric Co. (U.S., Industrials). The smallest three are General Motors Corp. (U.S., Consumer Goods), Renewable Energy Corp. ASA (Norway, Oil & Gas), and Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. ADS (China, Oil & Gas). As of the close on Monday, November 10, 2008, The Global Dow is down 44.22% year to date.
Daily historical data is available back to December 31, 2000, with a base value of 1000. For more information on The Global Dow, including the full list of components, please visit www.globaldow.com.
The Global Dow was first published on November 11, 2008. All estimated daily historical closing prices prior to that date are based on back-testing (i.e., calculations of how the index might have performed in the past if it had existed). Backtested performance information is purely hypothetical and is solely for informational purposes. Backtested performance does not represent actual performance, and past performance is not indicative of future results.
Journalists may e-mail questions regarding this press release to PR-Indexes@dowjones.com.
Note to Editors:
About Dow Jones Indexes
A full-service index provider, Dow Jones Indexes develops, maintains and licenses indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products. Best known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes also is co-owner of the Dow Jones STOXX indexes, the world's leading pan-European indexes, and together with Wilshire Associates, provides the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Index family, which is anchored by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and covers more than 12,000 securities in 61 markets. Beyond equity indexes, Dow Jones Indexes maintains a number of alternative indexes, including measures of the hedge fund and commodity markets. Dow Jones indexes are maintained according to clear, unbiased and systematic methodologies that are fully integrated within index families. www.djindexes.com
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