Seems like just last week we were writing about the important role that Minnesota's two most valuable companies, UnitedHealth Group and 3M Co., played in the rise of the Dow Jones industrials average during 2017.
They were the third- and fourth-biggest contributors to the Dow's 25 percent rise last year. And in November, when the index went from 23,000 to 24,000, gains by UnitedHealth and 3M were the biggest of all 30 stocks that form the Dow. 3M contributed 136 points and UnitedHealth 122 during that 1,000-point run.
But over the past month or so, from when the Dow first crossed 24,000 on Nov. 30 to its first crossing of 25,000 yesterday, the two Minnesota companies were the worst performers. They were two of the four companies (along with Intel and Travelers) that took away points from the index during that 1,000-point move.
UnitedHealth subtracted 25 points and 3M 30.5 points from the index. To be sure, those translate to relatively small declines in the value of their shares. 3M's stock closed yesterday down 1.8 percent from its level on Nov. 30. And UnitedHealth was down 1.7 percent from then.
But that's still a departure in performance from the broader index. The 1,000-point move from 24,000 to 25,000 amounted to a 4.17-percent gain in value.
Sports fans keep track of first-to-worst performances. What does the intramural jockeying inside the Dow signal? Less than meets the eye. The Dow is a price-weighted index. (Some think it has become a trivial index because of that characteristic.) And 3M and UnitedHealth are some of the most expensive stocks on it at the moment, which means little moves in their pricing have a relatively bigger effect on the movement of the index.
