Unlike other indices, the Dow30 is weighted towards the trading price of the underlying stocks. Therefore, a $100 stock holds more weight than a $10 stock. Accordingly, the Dow30 would increase more (points-wise or percentage-wise) when the $100 stock increases 10% than when the $10 stock appreciates 10% holding the other 28 stock movements constant.
The table below lists all 30 Dow components along with their 2/2/2012 closing price and associated component-weights (in percent of index).
| STOCK | PRICE ($) | % of Dow30 |
| IBM | 191.53 | 11.41% |
| CAT | 110.33 | 6.57% |
| CVX | 103.69 | 6.18% |
| MCD | 98.62 | 5.87% |
| MMM | 87.43 | 5.21% |
| XOM | 83.53 | 4.98% |
| UTX | 80.02 | 4.77% |
| BA | 75.22 | 4.48% |
| KO | 67.83 | 4.04% |
| JNJ | 65.59 | 3.91% |
| PG | 63.32 | 3.77% |
| WMT | 61.94 | 3.69% |
| TRV | 59.39 | 3.54% |
| DD | 51.4 | 3.06% |
| AXP | 51.16 | 3.05% |
| HD | 44.46 | 2.65% |
| DIS | 38.91 | 2.32% |
| MRK | 38.44 | 2.29% |
| KFT | 38.58 | 2.30% |
| VZ | 37.56 | 2.24% |
| JPM | 37.55 | 2.24% |
| MSFT | 29.95 | 1.78% |
| T | 29.79 | 1.77% |
| HPQ | 28.5 | 1.70% |
| INTC | 26.49 | 1.58% |
| PFE | 21.11 | 1.26% |
| CSCO | 19.8 | 1.18% |
| GE | 18.75 | 1.12% |
| AA | 10.42 | 0.62% |
| BAC | 7.45 | 0.44% |
| Total | 1678.76 | |
| DJIA | 12705.41 | |
| Multiplier | 7.568 | |
| (as of 2/2/2012 close 3PM ET) | ||
As you can tell, IBM carries as much weight as the bottom 9 components COMBINED. Another observation is that the top 10 components hold over 57% of the index weight. OccupyDow10.
Oh by the way, if Apple replaced IBM in the index (for some odd reason), AAPL would have a 23.43% weight. That is madness.
