The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a stock market index originally created by Charles Dow which, today, consists of 30 large, widely held public companies.

The index was first published on May 26th, 1896 and included only 12 companies which at the time were the most important in American business. General Electric is the only company on the original list that still remains in the index.

The companies that make up the index as of March 20th, 2007 are listed below along with their ticker symbol and their main line of business:

• Alcoa Inc. [AA] - aluminum
• American International Group Inc. [AIG] - insurance
• American Express Inc. [AXP] - credit services
• Boeing Co. [BA] - aerospace/defense
• Citigroup Inc. [C] - banks
• Caterpillar Inc. [CAT] - farm & construction equipment
• EI DuPont de Nemours & Co. [DD] - chemicals
• Walt Disney Co. [DIS] - entertainment
• General Electric Co. [GE] - conglomerate
• General Motors Corporation [GM] - autos
• Home Dept Inc. [HD] - home improvement stores
• Honeywell International Inc. [HON] - conglomerate
• Hewlett Packard Co. [HPQ] - diversified computer systems
• Internaional Business Machines [IBM] - diversified computer systems
• Intel Corp. [INTC] - semiconductors
• Johnson & Johnson [JNJ] - consumer & health care products
• JP Morgan Chase & Co. [JPM] - banks
• Coca Cola Co. [KO] - beverage
• McDonald’s Corp. [MCD] - restaurants
• 3M Company [MMM] - conglomerate
• Altria Group Inc [MO] - tobacco
• Merck & Company Inc. [MRK] - drug manufacturer
• Microsoft Corp. [MSFT] - software
• Pfizer Inc. [PFE] - drug manufacturer
• Procter & Gamble Co. [PG] - consumer goods
• AT&T Inc. [T] - telecom
• United Technologies Corp. [UTX] - conglomerate
• Verizon Communications Inc. [VZ] - telecom
• Wal Mart Stores Inc. [WMT] - retai
• Exxon Mobil Corp. [XOM] - oil & gas

In the past few years the largest gains have been garnered by investments in emerging countries around the world. The global growth we are currently seeing has made the international markets a hotspot for those that want to chase high returns. While the US market has performed quite well, it doesn’t hold a candle to some of the returns seen by some countries in 2006. Take a look at the stand out MSCI indexes from last year (the US index gained 13.86%):

China - 107.02%
Russia - 51.01%
India - 49.11%
Brazil - 39.50%
Mexico - 37.62%
Hong Kong - 34.45%
Germany - 32.59%
France - 30.95%
UK - 26.52%
Australia - 25.73%

If you want to invest into country specific ETFs, iShares offers a variety of MSCI index funds which you can purchase.

What are the Morgan Stanley Capital International Indexes (MSCI)?

It is a series of indexes constructed by Morgan Stanley to help institutional investors benchmark their returns. They cover a wide range of developed and emerging economies.

iShares Country Specific MSCI Index Funds

Australia - EWA
Austria - EWO
Belgium - EWK
Brazil - EWZ
Canada - EWC
France - EWQ
Germany - EWG
Hong Kong - EWH
Italy - EWI
Japan - EWJ
Malaysia - EWM
Mexico - EWW
Netherlands - EWN
Singapore - EWS
South Africa - EZA
South Korea - EWY
Spain - EWP
Sweden - EWD
Switzerland - EWL
Taiwan - EWT
United Kingdom - EWU

Other Country Specific Index ETFs

China - FXI
India - INP

There are many other country specific ETFs that don’t correlate to an index but rather the fund managers individual stock picks. Keep in mind that emerging markets can be quite volatile as we were reminded on February 27th (The Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index shed 9.2% that day) but they do offer the potential for high returns for those that are willing to take on the added risk.

Exchange rate talk has been in the news of late and previously you had to have a Forex trading account in order to speculate on the world’s currencies. However, a new set of ETFs offered by Rydex Investments gives investors the opportunity to buy and sell foreign money just like they would a stock. Called “CurrencyShares”, the recently launched ETFs provide the holder a stake in the currency the fund represents and offer a monthly distribution based on interest earned.

Below is a list of ETFs currently offered under the CurrencyShares umbrella:

• Australian Dollar Trust - Symbol: FXA
• British Pound Sterling Trust - Symbol: FXB
• Canadian Dollar Trust - Symbol: FXC
• Euro Trust - Symbol: FXE
• Japanese Yen Trust - Symbol: FXY
• Mexican Peso Trust - Symbol: FXM
• Swedish Krona Trust- Symbol: FXS
• Swiss Franc Trust - Symbol: FXF

For more information on these funds, visit the CurrencyShares website.