Blue-Chip Index

A stock index that tracks the shares of the top-performing publicly traded companies. Blue-chip stocks represent companies that are financially stable, well established and provide good returns for investors, making them desirable investments. Because blue-chip companies tend to perform similarly to the economy as a whole, the performance of a blue-chip index may be considered a gauge of an industry's or region's economic strength. It is for this reason that news reports typically mention how a major blue-chip stock index, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIJA), performed that day.

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