Thursday, December 11, 1997

The Daily Dow
by Robert Sheard

LEXINGTON, KY. (Dec. 11, 1997) -- At times of international brouhaha and overall market volatility, it's easy to forget one's long-term Foolish outlook on investing. So as a general service to those who are getting more and more nervous, and just because I think lists and numbers are cool, here are the three-, five-, and ten-year average returns for the thirty DJIA stocks.

Over the last three years, the average Dow stock has compounded at 30.8% a year. Over the last five years, the average stock gained 22.1% a year, and over the last ten years, the average stock recorded annual gains of 19.4%. It's amazing how reliable they can be if you show a little patience, isn't it?

Even if you were unlucky enough to buy the ten worst stocks over the last decade, you made an average return of 13.3% a year. A lot of fund managers would be happy to exchange their performance with you.

Here's the table with each stock and its average return over the three periods. Feel free to paste it into your spreadsheet program and play with the results.

Before anyone mentions it, yes, I'm aware that these thirty stocks weren't in the Dow for the whole period, but the majority of them were and the strength of the stocks' performance overall is still comforting, I should think. Fool on!

(Please scroll down for continuation of report)!

3-Yr  5-Yr   10-Yr    Company Name
33.6  23.1   21.4     AlliedSignal Inc. (NYSE: ALD)
20.2  16.1   14.8     Aluminum Co. of Amer. (NYSE: AA)
41.3  34.7   18.4     Amer. Express (NYSE: AXP)
 7.2   6.1   10.9     AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T)
35.2  27.1   24.0     Boeing (NYSE: BA)
23.5  29.6   14.9     Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT)
27.2  23.2   21.1     Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CHV)
36.2  27.4   32.2     Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO)
30.6  18.4   22.6     Disney, Walt (NYSE: DIS)
34.5  23.9   20.7     Du Pont (NYSE: DD)
12.7  16.0    9.3     Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK)
31.1  20.2   17.9     Exxon Corp. (NYSE: XON)
51.0  32.1   24.9     Gen'l Electric (NYSE: GE)
20.3  16.4   12.5     Gen'l Motors (NYSE: GM)
24.1  13.3   12.5     Goodyear Tire (NYSE: GT)
37.2  31.2   19.5     Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HWP)
47.3  28.2   10.4     Int'l Business Mach. (NYSE: IBM)
12.5  10.4   13.0     Int'l Paper (NYSE: IP)
35.1  22.3   23.7     Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)
20.4  15.5   17.8     McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD)
39.7  19.1   20.4     Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK)
27.7  17.4   16.6     Minnesota Mining (NYSE: MMM)
29.8  17.4   18.6     Morgan (J.P.) & Co (NYSE: JPM)
35.6  15.6   24.7     Philip Morris (NYSE: MO)
37.1  25.4   25.2     Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG)
25.9  24.5   18.0     Sears  Roebuck (NYSE: S)
67.6  46.1   32.4     Travelers Group (NYSE: TRV)
17.7  25.4   20.8     Union Carbide (NYSE: UK)
39.7  30.5   20.5     United Technologies (NYSE: UTX)
20.8   5.2   21.6     Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) 

TODAY'S NUMBERS

Stock Change Last -------------------- T - 3/4 57.19 GM - 15/16 63.25 CHV - 11/16 77.56 MMM -1 92.88

Day Month Year FOOL-4 -1.18% 0.15% 26.27% DJIA -1.63% 0.33% 21.72% S&P 500 -1.53% -0.05% 28.92% NASDAQ -2.39% -2.62% 20.72% Rec'd # Security In At Now Change 1/2/97 479 AT&T 41.75 57.19 36.98% 1/2/97 153 Chevron 65.00 77.56 19.33% 1/2/97 179 Gen. Motor 55.75 63.25 13.45% 1/2/97 120 3M 83.00 92.88 11.90% Rec'd # Security In At Value Change 1/2/97 479 AT&T 19998.25 27392.81 $7394.56 1/2/97 153 Chevron 9945.00 11867.06 $1922.06 1/2/97 179 Gen. Motor 9979.25 11321.75 $1342.50 1/2/97 120 3M 9960.00 11145.00 $1185.00 CASH $1409.35 TOTAL $63135.98