The Dow Jones Transportation Average, (DJTA, also called the "Dow Jones Transports"), index ticker symbol DJT is a U.S.

stock market index In finance, a stock index, or stock market index, is an Index (economics), index that measures the performance of a stock market, or of a subset of a stock market. It helps investors compare current stock price levels with past prices to calcul ...

from S&P Dow Jones Indices of the

transportation Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

sector, and is the most widely recognized gauge of the American transportation sector. It is the oldest stock index still in use, being in use longer than its better-known relative, the

Dow Jones Industrial Average The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), Dow Jones, or simply the Dow (), is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. The DJIA is one of the oldest and most commonly followed equity indice ...

(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. 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. , the index consists of the following 20 companies: Alaska Air Group replaced AMR Corporation on December 2, 2011, after AMR corp. filed for bankruptcy protection. Effective October 30, 2012, Kirby Corp. replaced Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. Effective October 1, 2014, Avis Budget Group Inc. replaced GATX Corporation. On October 15, 2015, American Airlines Group replaced Con-way. Effective December 14, 2021, Old Dominion Freight Line replaced Kansas City Southern. Effective February 26, 2024, Uber replaced JetBlue Airways. The index change was prompted by JetBlue’s low weight in the index of less than one-half of one percentage point caused by its low share price.

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

transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...

ation companies—nine

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

s and two non-rail companies: * 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 The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

* 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.

Price history

In 1964, the index first broke 200, slightly over where it was in 1929. In 1983, the index first broke 500. In 1987, the index broke 1000. It closed at 2146.89 on March 9, 2009, having a low coincident with some other indices; this was a bit above its low of 1942.19 on March 11, 2003. The index broke above the mid-5000s to begin a run of record highs on January 15, 2013, at a time when the better-known Industrials stood about 5% below all-time highs achieved more than five years earlier. By May, the Industrials and all other major indexes except the NASDAQ group were making all-time highs, including the Transports, which reached new closing and intraday records above the 6,500 level. On October 24, 2013, the Transports closed at 7,022.79, for its first close above 7,000 points. It closed the year at a record high of 7,400.57. On May 27, 2014, it first closed above 8,000 points. The index closed above 9000 on November 10, 2014. At the close of 2014, the index hit 9139.92. At the close of 2015, the index hit 7508.71, a loss of 17.85% on the year.

Annual returns

The following table shows the price return of the Dow Jones Transportation Average, which was calculated back to 1924.

Record values

Investing

There is no fund that tracks this index. There are funds that have a similar behavior, such as iShares Transportation Average ETF ().

References

External links

Official Website

Dow Jones & Company websiteYahoo: Chart of DJTA performance (1928-present)chart of DJT vs SPX
from Yahoo! Finance {{News Corporation American stock market indices Stock market indices by industry S&P Dow Jones Indices 1884 establishments in the United States