Business

Dow Reshuffle: Apple Joins Blue-Chip Index, AT&T Gets Booted

Published

11 years ago

March 7, 2015

In this Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013, file photo, the Apple logo is illuminated in the entrance to the Fifth Avenue Apple store, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

BERNARD CONDON, AP Business Writers
MAE ANDERSON, AP Business Writers

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple is in. AT&T is out.

In another milestone for the popular and profitable iPhone giant, Apple will replace AT&T in the venerable Dow Jones industrial average on March 19, the manager of the index announced Friday.

The move isn’t likely to impact the 30-stock index much, and will have no effect on the fortunes of the two companies. But market experts say it does have symbolic importance, sort of like getting an Oscar at the Academy Awards — or at least a nomination.

The change cements Apple as “the gold standard of technology,” says Daniel Ives, a financial analyst at FBR Research. “They’ve really become the modern-day Wright Brothers.”

The reshuffling of the 119-year-old Dow, a barometer of market fortune and folly once dominated by railroads, also reflects a changed business world.

“It underscores that technology continues to be a critical driver of the overall economy,” says Edward Jones analyst Bill Kreher.

Apple is the world’s most valuable company. Its market value on the stock exchange, or what it would take to buy all its shares, closed last month above $700 billion, a first for any company.

Apple won’t get top billing in the Dow, though. Thanks to a quirk in the way the index is calculated, that honor will go to a company a little over a tenth as valuable: Goldman Sachs.

The Dow weights companies by how much it costs to buy a single share, not all of them. On Friday, a Goldman share fetched $186.91 versus $126.60 for Apple.

A look at the musical chairs at the world’s most famous index:

THE REASON

For all the symbolic importance, the trigger for the move is less colorful. The manager of the index, the S&P Dow Jones Indices, said it’s making the change in response to a planned stock split for Visa, another Dow member.

After its four-to-one split, Visa will wind up with a lower price. S&P said that would reduce the weight of the information technology sector in the Dow because Visa, a credit-card and payment-processing giant, counts as a tech stock. Adding Apple will help balance out this reduction.

TWEAKING THE INDEX

S&P Dow Jones Indices said the decision to fold in Apple won’t alter the overall level of the index, which stood at 17,856 Friday.

S&P Dow Jones is casting the move as a sort of a housekeeping maneuver, a way to ensure that the index better reflects the U.S. economy and markets.

The switch is not a reflection of its view of Apple.

“This doesn’t mean we like the stock, or don’t like the stock, or something like that,” says David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones.

CHALLENGES AT AT&T

While the Dow change wasn’t triggered by anything AT&T did, it comes at a challenging time for the phone giant.

The nation’s second-largest wireless carrier is facing pressure from smaller rivals T-Mobile and Sprint in a competitive environment in which most Americans already have a cellphone.

Its stock has risen just 3.5 percent in the past 12 months. That compares with a 10.4 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500. Apple, meanwhile, has jumped 67 percent.

To keep growing, AT&T has had to look beyond cellphones — to tablets and connected cars, for example. Adding a tablet to a phone plan gets AT&T another $10 in monthly service fees.

The Dallas-based company is also trying to wean customers off equipment subsidies and shift them toward installment plans in which they ultimately pay full price for a phone.

In its most recent quarter, AT&T booked a loss due to one-time expenses. But its revenue rose 4 percent as it added 1.9 million subscribers, double the year-ago quarterly increase.

AT&T has bounced in and out of the blue chip average over the Dow’s long history. It first entered in 1916 as American Telephone & Telegraph, joining Central Leather, Studebaker and other industrial giants in an elite club of 20 companies. Much later, in 2004, AT&T was kicked out only to return the following year when it merged with SBC Communications.

THE DOW STILL MATTERS

Created in 1896, the Dow is one of the oldest gauges of stocks. Grover Cleveland was U.S. president that year. Companies like the Pacific Mail Steamship were counted among its ranks.

The index tracks only 30 stocks. The Standard & Poor’s 500 reflects the moves of 500.

The S&P 500 also ranks companies differently, assigning weights based on the value of all a company’s shares, not just one. That gives Apple more influence on daily moves in the index than any other stock. It accounts for nearly 4 percent of the index.

Professional investors focus more on the S&P 500 because they think it reflects the stock market better. They tend to use that index, not the Dow, to judge the performance of their own portfolios.

Ordinary investors also prefer the S&P 500, judging from the money they’ve put into index funds that mimic its performance. Investors have $4 trillion in 1,261 funds that track the S&P 500, according to Morningstar. That compares with just $13.6 billion in 12 Dow-based index funds.

Still, the Dow can’t be dismissed as a relic. It continues to be much cited and isn’t seen as wildly distorted.

One reason is that, for all its flaws, the Dow has largely mirrored the ups and downs of the much larger S&P 500. In the past 12 months, for instance, the Dow has risen 8.7 percent versus the S&P 500’s 10.4 percent.

The last big Dow shake-up came in September 2013, when Goldman Sachs, Nike and Visa knocked out Alcoa, Bank of America and Hewlett-Packard.

___

AP Business Writer Matthew Craft contributed to this report.

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Activism

EBMUD Enshrines the Legacy of its First Black Board Member William ‘Bill’ Patterson

Patterson, who died in 2025 at the age of 94, was remembered as a tireless advocate, mentor, and public servant whose influence shaped generations across the East Bay.

Published

2 days ago

May 15, 2026

Oakland Post

William “Bill” Patterson, Jr. Courtesy Peralta College District

By Carla Thomas

On Tuesday, May 12, Oakland honored a towering community figure, William “Bill” Patterson, with the unveiling of a bronze plaque and the renaming of the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) boardroom in downtown Oakland.

Board members, family, colleagues, and mentees gathered to reflect on Patterson’s enduring legacy at the meeting.

Patterson, who died in 2025 at the age of 94, was remembered as a tireless advocate, mentor, and public servant whose influence shaped generations across the East Bay.

“This is well deserved,” said Patterson’s cousin, Maria Simon. “He was such a big part of the Oakland community. It’s heartwarming to know he was known by so many people.

“So many credit him with helping them get their first job. It was especially meaningful when he held the Bible for Mayor Barbara Lee’s swearing-in. He truly believed in the goodness of people, in possibilities, and in the power to bring things to fruition.”

Oakland NAACP President Cynthia Adams described Patterson as a father figure. “He took me under his wing,” she said. “This recognition is a very special moment.”

Fellow NAACP member Robert “Bob” Harris echoed that sentiment, recalling Patterson as “a great member of the NAACP and a proud Kappa Alpha Psi man.”

Patterson’s son, William Patterson Jr., reflected on his father’s professional life.

“My father loved his community, and he loved working with EBMUD and spoke highly of his colleagues,” he said, standing alongside cousin Rise Jones Pichon, a former Santa Clara County Superior Court judge.

EBMUD Board President Luz Gómez praised Patterson’s resilience and dedication.

“As his health declined, he would spend half the day in the hospital and still come to our meetings,” she said. “There will never be another like him.”

Activist Cheryl Sudduth highlighted Patterson’s commitment to workforce development and youth empowerment. “He had the vision to bring water careers to students and the next generation,” she said, noting that participants in one of his initiatives received $2,000 stipends.

Sudduth also summed up one of Patterson’s guiding philosophies: “He told me it’s not enough to have a seat at the table. You need to have access to quality resources, the tools to build the table, and the skills to ensure everyone there can contribute. We should be more than a representation; we should reflect determination.”

EBMUD Board Member Andy Katz emphasized the importance of remembrance.

“When you die, you die twice, physically, and then when people stop saying your name,” he said. “By honoring him this way, his name will continue to be spoken for years to come.”

Others in attendance reflected on Patterson’s broad impact.

“It was a joy to watch him accomplish so much,” said EBMUD Board Member Marguerite Young.

Business leader, Delane Sims added that Patterson became a trusted advisor to multiple Oakland mayors.

“We need young people to learn about him so they can become leaders capable of creating meaningful change,” Sims said.

Following public comments, attendees witnessed the unveiling of the bronze plaque in the boardroom foyer, along with signage officially renaming the space in Patterson’s honor.

Born in 1931, Patterson devoted more than seven decades to public service in Oakland and the broader East Bay. Appointed to the EBMUD Board in 1997, he served for 27 years and became its first African American board president. His leadership extended beyond water governance into civil rights, education, and community development.

A three-term president of the Oakland NAACP, Patterson also advised Oakland’s first Black mayor, Lionel Wilson, and played a key role in advancing equity, public health, and environmental justice. He served on the Urban Strategies Council and the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, further shaping public policy.

In 1971, Patterson was a founding director of the Peralta Colleges Foundation, which provides financial assistance and support to students across Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, Laney College, and Merritt College.

In addition, Patterson mentored countless young people through Oakland’s recreation programs, helping guide future leaders and even professional athletes. Though slight in stature, Patterson will always be remembered as a giant of a man.

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Arts and Culture

Against All Odds: Mary Jackson’s Journey to NASA Engineer

Jackson’s life took a significant turn when she was offered the opportunity to work in a wind tunnel, a facility used to test the effects of air moving over aircraft structures. It was here that her passion for engineering truly took flight. However, there was a challenge: to become an engineer, she needed to take advanced courses that were only offered at a segregated high school.

Published

2 days ago

May 15, 2026

Oakland Post

Mary Jackson. Public domain.

By Tamara Shiloh

When we talk about breaking barriers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the name Mary Jackson deserves a place at the top of the list.

Jackson was born in 1921 in Hampton, Virginia, a place that would later become central to her groundbreaking work. From an early age, she showed a strong aptitude for math and science—subjects that, at the time, were not widely encouraged for African American women. But Jackson was not one to be limited by expectations. She earned degrees in mathematics and physical science from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), setting the foundation for a career that would change history.

Before joining NASA, Jackson worked as a teacher and later as a research mathematician at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the agency that eventually became NASA. Like many African American women of her time, she began her career as a “human computer,” performing complex calculations by hand. It was in this environment that she worked alongside brilliant minds like Katherine Johnson, forming part of a powerful group of African American women whose calculations helped launch America into space.

Jackson did something truly remarkable. She petitioned the city of Hampton for permission to attend those classes. She didn’t accept “no” as an answer. And she won.

In 1958, Jackson became NASA’s first African American female engineer.

But Jackson’s impact didn’t stop there.

Later in her career, she chose to step away from her engineering position—not because she couldn’t continue, but because she wanted to make a difference. She moved into roles focused on equal opportunity, working to ensure that women and minorities had access to the same opportunities she fought so hard to get.

Jackson’s story gained wider recognition through the book and film Hidden Figures, which highlighted the contributions of African American women at NASA. But long before the spotlight found her, Jackson was doing the work—quietly, persistently, and brilliantly.

Jackson retired from Langley in 1985. Among her many honors were an Apollo Group Achievement Award and being named Langley’s Volunteer of the Year in 1976. She served as the chair of one of the center’s annual United Way campaigns and a member of the National Technical Association (the oldest African American technical organization in the United States).

She and her husband Levi had an open-door policy for young Langley recruits trying to gain their footing in a new town and a new career. A 1976 Langley Researcher profile might have done the best job capturing Mary’s spirit and character, calling her a “gentlelady, wife and mother, humanitarian and scientist.”

For Jackson, science and service went hand in hand.

She died on Feb. 11, 2005, at age 83, at a convalescent home in Hampton, Virginia.

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Alameda County

The Marin City Flea Market Is Back

The Marin City Flea Market returns on May 23, offering arts, crafts, vintage items, and collectibles. The market aims to uplift local vendors and celebrate cultural diversity.

Published

2 days ago

May 15, 2026

Oakland Post

Customers shopping in Marin City Flea Market. Photo courtesy of marincityflea.org.

By Godfrey Lee

After a long absence, Marin City will once again hold its flea market. The market will have its grand opening on Saturday, May 23, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the St. Andrew Presbyterian Church parking lot on 101 Donahue St. It will be held every fourth Saturday of the month

The market will be free to the public

There will be arts, crafts, vintage, collectibles, and other items on sale at the market. Interested vendors can contact info@marincityflea.org or text (415) 484-2984 for more information.

“The Marin City Flea Market’s mission is to uplift local vendors, celebrate cultural diversity, and provide an accessible community space where creativity, entrepreneurship, and connection can thrive,” says their website, marincityflea.org.

The flea market is sponsored and run by the Rotary Club of Marin City.

For more information, contact info@marincityflea.org. Or text to (415) 484-2984