The economy has changed a lot in the five years since the Dow Jones industrial average crossed 13,000 for the first time on April 25, 2007. The Dow itself has changed, too.
Insurance company American International Group was thrown out of the Dow club in September 2008, a week after it had to be rescued by the government. It was replaced by Kraft Foods.
The ailing General Motors and Citigroup were dumped in June 2009, when GM went into bankruptcy protection and Citi was part-owned by the U.S. government. Travelers Companies and Cisco Systems were added in their place.
As then, the average contains 30 top-shelf companies that broadly represent U.S. industry. And while the Dow may be at the same level now as in April 2007, the fortunes of the stocks that make it up have varied widely.
The biggest winner, by far, has been McDonald’s. The stock price of the reliably profitable fast-food giant has slightly more than doubled since then. Including dividends, which the Dow average doesn’t take into account, McDonald’s is up even more, 140 percent.
The biggest loser has been Bank of America, down 84 percent. Woes stemming from the bank’s ill-fated purchase of mortgage lender Countrywide have weighed heavily on the stock. The only major bank stock that did worse over the past five years was Citi, down 94 percent.
