The Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJTA, also called the "Dow Jones Transports") is a U.S. stock market index from Dow Jones Indexes of the transportation sector, and is the most widely recognized gauge of the American transportation sector. It is the oldest stock index still in use, even older than its better-known relative, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).[1]
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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.[1] 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.[2] Today, the index consists of the following 20 companies:[2][3] Alaska Air Group replaced AMR corp. on December 2, 2011 after AMR corp. filed for bankruptcy protection.
| Corporation | Ticker | Industry |
|---|---|---|
| Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. | ALEX | marine transportation |
| Alaska Air Group | ALK | airlines |
| C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. | CHRW | trucking |
| Con-Way, Inc. | CNW | trucking |
| CSX Corp. | CSX | railroads |
| Delta Air Lines. | DAL | airlines |
| Expeditors International | EXPD | delivery services |
| FedEx Corporation | FDX | delivery services |
| GATX Corp. | GMT | business support services |
| JB Hunt Transport Services, Inc. | JBHT | trucking |
| JetBlue Airways Corp. | JBLU | airlines |
| Kansas City Southern | KSU | railroads |
| Landstar System, Inc. | LSTR | trucking |
| Norfolk Southern Corp. | NSC | railroads |
| Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc. | OSG | marine transportation |
| Ryder System, Inc. | R | transportation services |
| Southwest Airlines, Inc. | LUV | airlines |
| UAL Corp. | UAL | airlines |
| Union Pacific Corp. | UNP | railroads |
| United Parcel Service, Inc. | UPS | delivery services |
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 transportation-related companies: nine railroads and two non-rail companies. They were the following:
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.
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