Dow Jones company, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, presented its first average of U.S. stocks on 3 July 1884. Twelve years later, the editors picked 12 stocks that were intended to serve as a proxy for the market as a whole. The index is reassessed every few years to ensure that the average reflects the "blue-chip" sector of the market.

The original Dow Jones Industrial Average, or DJIA consisted of 12 stocks, and the list gives a great insight into the nature of the economy at the time:

In 1916 the number of stocks making up the DJIA was increased to 20. The 30-stock average, which is the current number of Dow components, made its debut in 1928. General Electric is the only original member of the index that is also a current member, although it dropped out and was reinstanted twice between 1898 to 1907.

Here is a list of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as of 1 January 2004: