Long Term Perspective

Utility stocks had a phenomenal year in 2000 posting a 45 percent spurt after declining modestly in 1999. Unfortunately, the utility index plunged 28.7 percent in 2001 and 26.8 percent in 2002, thereby more than reversing the surge in 2000. The 10-year average fell to 2.3 percent in 2002, the worst 10-year average since 1982!

Short Term Perspective

The 15 utilities included in this index are: AES Corp., AEP, Centerpoint Energy, Consolidated Edison, Dominion Resources, Duke Energy, Edison International, Exelon Corp., FirstEnergy Corp., NiSource Inc., PG&E, Public Service Enterprise, Southern Co., TXU Corp., and Williams Cos.

The Utility index jumped 27.5 percent in October versus year ago levels. This was the second month in which this index posted a year-over-year gain.

The Utility index edged up 0.7 percent in October, a modest gain relative to the other Dow indexes.