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Exxon Mobile, along with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and defense contractor Raytheon Technologies were removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) on Tuesday

Salesforce, the cloud software company, Amgen, a biopharmaceutical business, and the manufacturing conglomerate Honeywell have replaced the ousted companies.

Since 1928, oil giant Exxon has been listed on the Dow, 10 years longer than Raytheon, who came on in 1939. 

The oil industry has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The major decrease in demand and the steep decline in prices resulted in a large number of bankruptcies. With Exxon’s removal, Chevron is the only energy company left on the Dow.

Apple's proposed 4-for-1 stock split has impacted the Dow’s decision as well. S&P Dow Jones Indices gave the split as the primary reason for taking action.

Other members that remain, include Apple, Disney, Walmart, Home Depot, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Boeing, Microsoft, McDonald's, Verizon, Visa, Nike, and Goldman Sachs.

Measuring the economy by the Dow

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), more commonly known as the Dow, is a stock market index that is considered the most widely-watched benchmark of blue-chip stocks.

With the Dow, the public-at-large and investors, in particular, can see the direction of the stock market at a glance.

The U.S. economy is in part, measured by the Dow. The Dow is one of the primary metrics which shows economists real-time fluctuations of how major segments of the economy are doing. 

The Dow measures the stock performance of 30 large companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.

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