when the media reports that the stock market is up or down for the day they mean the us 30 its movements are used as a proxy for the overall performance of the stock market 
the us 30 is also used as an indicator of the general health of the u s economy the companies in the dow provide many jobs and its goods and services are used by many if not most americans their success relies on the population s spending habits in other words when us 30 companies do well it generally means the economy is in good shape when they start to stutter it suggests that bad times could be coming investors can put money into the us 30 via exchange traded funds etfs such as the spdr dow jones industrial average etf and the ishares dow jones u s etf 23these etfs give investors the chance to buy a stake in 30 of america s largest most significant publicly owned companies these are blue chip stocks with big customer bases steady revenues and profits and excess cash that makes them highly sought after history of the us 30the us 30 was created by journalist charles dow and his business partner edward jones in 1896 it is the second oldest stock market index in the u s they also founded the wall street journal 4the dow 30 was developed as a means of tracking the overall performance of the u s stock market in an age when information flow was relatively limited the idea was to let ordinary investors know which direction the market was heading the original index consisted of 12 companies then considered important to america s economy they were as this list illustrates the economy of 19th century america was much more focused on the production of commodities 4the dow expanded to 20 stocks in 1916 and then 30 stocks in 1928 5to get into the dow 30 and stay there companies must be a backbone of the u s economy companies of the us 30the full name of the us 30 is the dow jones industrial average which today is a bit misleading in its early years the titans of american business were the heavy industries that helped transform america during the industrial revolution the name has stuck even though the u s economy and the index s constituents have changed significantly there are no firm guidelines for including a company in the us 30 or for dropping it a committee made up of executives from s p dow jones indices and the wall street journal decides which companies make the cut the only criteria are that those included must have an excellent reputation demonstrate sustained growth and be of interest to a large number of investors 6below is a list of the companies included in the dow 30 as of april 2023 7as you can see the companies currently in the index are household names spanning a range of different business sectors and many of them have been in the index for many years in theory the makeup of the index can change at any time however in reality tweaks are rare the most recent changes made in february 2024 added amazon com inc to the list and removed walgreens boots alliance inc 