Week 383 - Dow Theory: A Primary Uptrend Resumed on 9/20/2018

Situation: The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 9% from the end of January to the end of March because of a developing trade war. The Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJTA) confirmed this move, suggesting that a new primary downtrend was developing. However, neither the DJIA nor the DJTA reached previous lows. By 9/20/2018, the DJIA reached a new high confirming the new high reached a month earlier by the DJTA. So, the decade-long primary uptrend had resumed after an 8-month hiccup. Why? Because trade war fears had abated. 

Both the DJIA (DIA) and DJTA (ITY) have out-performed Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) over the past 5 years, which is unusual. This leads stock-pickers to pay more attention to the stocks that are most heavily weighted in constructing those price-weighted indices. 

Mission: Take a close look at the top 10 companies in each index by applying our Standard Spreadsheet.

Execution: see Table.

Bottom Line: Eleven of the 20 companies issue bonds that carry an S&P rating of A- or better, and 6 of those 11 carry an S&P stock rating of A-/M or better: Home Depot (HD), UnitedHealth (UNH), 3M (MMM), Boeing (BA), International Business Machines (IBM), and Union Pacific (UNP). In that group, only IBM has failed to outperform BRK-B over the past 5 and 10 year periods.

Risk Rating: 6 (where 10-Yr US Treasury Notes = 1, S&P 500 Index = 5, and gold bullion = 10)

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