Dow Jones stocks won't always keep up in a rising market, but you can't beat them when it comes to stability and defense in a down market.
Case in point: the benchmark S&P 500 is up more than 38% on a price basis since the market bottomed out in April 2024, while the "growthier" but riskier tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added more than 50%.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, that elite list of 30 more mature industry leaders, rose about 30% over the same span.
That sort of underperformance hurts, but remember that stocks don't always go up. Recall that in 2022, when the S&P 500 fell 18% and the Nasdaq plunged 32%, the Dow lost only 7%.
Besides, you can blame the Magnificent 7 stocks for much of the Dow's lagging ways these days. Of the mega-cap tech names driving so much of the bull market's returns, only Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN) and Nvidia (NVDA) can be found in the blue-chip average.
The fact that the Dow is weighted by price rather than market cap limits the Mag 7's contributions on the way up, but then it also helps limit any damage on their way down.
It's important to know the Dow's recent performance isn't abnormal. Half of the average's components are low-beta stocks. That means they tend to lag in up markets, but hold up better when everything is selling off.
This low-beta skew can have advantages for long-term investors. After all, as bright a time as it's been for equity investors, downside risks very much remain.
A new international trade regime has injected uncertainty into both global financial markets and the global economy.
Fears of an economic slowdown are rising, with surveys of economists putting the odds of recession hitting in the next year at around 33%. The New York Fed's yield-curve model assigns a 20% probability of the U.S. entering a recession over the next 12 months.
Should such a change in market fortunes come to pass ... well, that's where Dow Jones stocks come in.
Dow Jones stocks ranked
This collection of industry-leading companies and dividend growth stalwarts with their fortress-like balance sheets can offer relative stability in tempestuous market times.
From the best Dow dividend stocks to the most widely held blue chip stocks, components of the industrial average occupy top spots in the portfolios of hedge funds and billionaire investors.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), in particular, is a huge fan of select Dow stocks.
To get a sense of which Dow Jones stocks Wall Street recommends at an increasingly uncertain time for equities, we screened the DJIA by analysts' consensus recommendations, from worst to first, using data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Here's how the ratings system works: S&P surveys analysts' stock calls and scores them on a five-point scale, where 1.0 equals a Strong Buy and 5.0 is a Strong Sell. Scores between 3.5 and 2.5 translate into Hold recommendations.
Scores higher than 3.5 equate to Sell ratings, while scores equal to or below 2.5 mean that analysts, on average, rate shares at Buy. The closer a score gets to 1.0, the higher conviction the Buy recommendation.
In other words, lower scores are better than higher scores.
See the table below for analysts' consensus recommendations on all 30 Dow Jones stocks, per S&P Global Market Intelligence, as of February 3, 2025.
Company (Ticker) |
Consensus recommendation score |
Consensus recommendation |
|---|---|---|
Travelers (TRV) |
2.58 |
Hold |
Goldman Sachs (GS) |
2.54 |
Hold |
American Express (AXP) |
2.52 |
Hold |
Amgen (AMGN) |
2.41 |
Buy |
International Business Machines (IBM) |
2.33 |
Buy |
Verizon Communications (VZ) |
2.32 |
Buy |
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) |
2.19 |
Buy |
Caterpillar (CAT) |
2.18 |
Buy |
3M (MMM) |
2.17 |
Buy |
McDonald's (MCD) |
2.16 |
Buy |
Honeywell International (HON) |
2.16 |
Buy |
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) |
2.12 |
Buy |
Chevron (CVX) |
2.12 |
Buy |
Procter & Gamble (PG) |
2.04 |
Buy |
Nike (NKE) |
2.00 |
Buy |
Apple (AAPL) |
1.98 |
Buy |
Sherwin-Williams (SHW) |
1.96 |
Buy |
Home Depot (HD) |
1.95 |
Buy |
Merck (MRK) |
1.93 |
Buy |
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) |
1.90 |
Buy |
Cisco Systems (CSCO) |
1.88 |
Buy |
Coca-Cola (KO) |
1.71 |
Buy |
Salesforce (CRM) |
1.64 |
Buy |
Walt Disney (DIS) |
1.59 |
Buy |
Boeing (BA) |
1.59 |
Buy |
Visa (V) |
1.41 |
Strong Buy |
Walmart (WMT) |
1.40 |
Strong Buy |
Nvidia (NVDA) |
1.34 |
Strong Buy |
Amazon.com (AMZN) |
1.34 |
Strong Buy |
Microsoft (MSFT) |
1.21 |
Strong Buy |
