Exxon Gets Kicked Out Of The Dow Jones Industrial Average

Exxon is being kicked out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index, where it has had a place since 1928. The reason: the Dow needed to make space for other, more valuable companies—and Apple’s stock split, CBS News reports.

The change will be effective on August 31.

Exxon, which was the oldest member of the index for the last two years after Dow removed GE, has been one of the most valuable companies in the U.S. and the world for decades. That is until Big Tech showed up and began changing the world, its stock reflecting this change by swelling market caps.

When Apple recently passed the $2-trillion valuation mark for a few hours, it became the most valuable company in the world.

Meanwhile, Big Oil—and Exxon specifically—hasn’t been faring all that well. Energy, which featured solidly on the index and in people’s lives a few decades ago, is being booted out by technology—Exxon’s replacement on the DJIA is a software company, Salesforce.

And then there is the climate change narrative and the accusations that Exxon knew about it but did not do anything about it. And it is not doing anything about it still, according to critics, unlike European supermajors, which are all but racing towards renewables.

Meanwhile, the double blow from the Saudi price war and the pandemic hit the world's largest public oil company hard. Exxon reported two quarterly losses this year, blaming oil prices and the effect of the pandemic on oil’s fundamentals. It is reducing its production in the face of lower demand and adjusting its spending plans like its peers to weather the worst of the crisis.

In the end, however, it is just about its share price. At a little over $42 a piece at the time of writing, Exxon is just too cheap for the DJIA, cheaper than the only other remaining energy company on the index: Chevron. Chevron is trading above $82 per share.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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