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

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