“The turnaround at Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) over the past decade is nothing short of remarkable. The company has gone from being a niche maker of computers favored mostly by graphics designers and college kids to a consumer electronics giant that has irrevocably changed both the telecom and media industries. As a result, Apple’s (AAPL) market value is now about $245 billion. That’s larger than 28 of the 30 Dow components. Only Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) are worth more. And the gap between Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) is shrinking fast — Microsoft’s market value is approximately $270 billion,” Paul R. La Monica Reports From CNN Money.

“It’s not inconceivable that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) could be in the Dow. At this market value, it’s hard to ignore,” said Sunil Reddy, portfolio manager with Apex Capital Management, a Dayton, Ohio-based investment firm that owns shares of Apple. 

La Monica continues to report, “Sure, critics may scoff that the company’s market value is unsustainable, a reflection of an insane amount of hype surrounding the stock in the wake of the iPad launch and continued success of the iPhone. Apple’s growth eventually has to slow down. Sales rose almost 50% from a year ago and profits were up nearly 90% in its latest quarter. Can a company of Apple’s size really keep growing at that breakneck pace? Maybe. Maybe not. But that’s not the point. I’m not suggesting that Apple should be added to the Dow because the Dow needs a faster growing company to juice its performance.”

“The Dow is not a mutual fund. It’s purpose, according to the Dow Jones Indexes Web site, is to “provide a clear, straightforward view of the stock market and, by extension, the U.S. economy.”  Let’s be honest. The fact that it’s still called the Dow Jones industrial average is a quaint anachronism. The Dow was entirely made up of industrial companies in 1896 because that was an accurate representation of the U.S. economy at the end of the 19th century. This is the dawn of the 21st century. The tech sector is a vibrant and increasingly important part of the U.S. economy now and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. The Dow should reflect that,” La Monica Reports.

“The Dow is an imperfect measure of the stock market but it’s the one that we have that everyone focuses on. It has enormous power,” John Steele Gordon said, an author and business historian. “I would be surprised if Apple isn’t eventually in the Dow. Apple has been highly innovative,” Gordon said. “The economy is changing so fast. Some weaker companies should probably be removed.”

See The Full Story From Paul R. La Monica: HERE

The thought of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) being added to the DJIA would certainly be warranted since it’s market cap is larger than 28 of the 30 companies listed representing a big part in our economy.  But and a big BUT, what if any benefit would investors of the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE:DIA) expect to see from the addition? AAPL has already experienced explosive growth, could that continue and what would the weighting be in the ETF?  Time will tell………  For now we have put together some details on the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF below including all 30 components with weightings related to each company within the ETF.

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (See The Full Prospectus: HERE)

SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSE:DIA) seeks to provide investment results that, before expenses, generally correspond to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Ticker: DJITR).

Dow Jones Industrial Average: The Dow Jones Industrial Average is an index of 30 “blue-chip” U.S. stocks. At 100-plus years, it is the oldest continuing U.S. market index. It is called an “average” because it originally was computed by adding up stock prices and dividing by the number of stocks. (The very first average price of industrial stocks, on May 26, 1896, was 40.94.) The methodology remains the same today, but the divisor has been changed to preserve historical continuity. The DJIA is the best-known market indicator in the world, partly because it is old enough that many generations of investors have become accustomed to quoting it, and partly because the U.S. stock market is the globe’s biggest.

NYSE:DIA, QQQQ, XLK