Businessweek’s Roben Farzad writes: Back in the lapsarian fog of June 2009, the keepers of the Dow Jones Industrial Average decided to tap Cisco, networking stalwart, to replace the bankrupt General Motors. Cisco, remarked a managing Dow Joneser, was added because its products are “vital to an economy and culture still adapting to the Information Age–just as automobiles were essential to America in the 20th Century.” Prescient catch: in the nearly two decades between its debut and Dow induction, a period that saw a router in every American garage, Cisco’s stock had already returned north of 22,000 percent.
So how did that 2009 decision turn out for the Dow? Depending on how you analyze it, either unfortunate or atrocious. Since its induction into the blue-chip average, Cisco has since inched up 1.3 percent, substantially under-performing the Dow’s 48 percent rise.
Had the Secret Order of the Dow instead tapped Apple (AAPL), a tech player also “vital to an economy and culture still adapting to the Information Age” (“Information Age” = really? Why not just call it the World-Wide Web?), the index would have enjoyed the stock’s 294 percent ascent over three years. In turn, we would now be rejoicing over the Dow being at an all-time high of 15,290, according to Bespoke Investment Group. Instead, the Dow remains just below 13,000. Ergo: America’s dignity, still smarting from the economic collapse, was deprived of nearly 2,300 points of stock market pride….
Read the rest at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-12/apple-woulda-coulda-had-the-dow-at-15-290
No comments:
Post a Comment