The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high of over 45,000 points in December, one of several stock market indexes to hit records after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

Here's a look at the top-performing and worst-performing Dow Jones Industrial Average components in 2024 and how the index's leaders could look much different in 2025.

2024 Performance: In 2024, 18 of the Dow Jones component stocks were up, with 12 stocks declining for the full year. This includes the original Dow Jones members at the start of 2024 and does not factor in the index changes made throughout the year.

Here's a look at the top five gainers for the full year, based on Dec. 27 closing prices:

  1. American Express (AXP  ): +60.7%
  2. Goldman Sachs (GS  ): +49.4%
  3. JPMorgan Chase (JPM  ): +41.8%
  4. International Business Machines (IBM  ): +36.2%
  5. Apple Inc (AAPL  ): +32.8%
Here are the top five losers for the full year, based on Dec. 27 closing prices:

  1. Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA  ): -63.2%
  2. Intel Corporation (INTC  ): -59.6%
  3. Walmart (WMT  ): -41.9%
  4. Boeing Inc (BA  ): -30.7%
  5. Nike Inc (NKE  ): -29.6%
For comparison, 19 of the Dow Jones components stocks were up in 2023, with 11 down for the full year.

A quick look at the losers list shows two stocks that are no longer part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, thanks to several changes that took place in 2024 to the 30 core components.

Apple is the only stock to appear on the top gainers list for both 2023 and 2024, ranking fourth in 2023 and fifth in 2024.

Intel was the second-biggest gainer in 2023 before falling in 2024 and turning in the second-worst performance of the 30 stocks. Boeing also flipped from being a top performer, ranking fifth in 2023 to turning in a poor performance in 2024.

Walgreens was the worst-performing Dow Jones stock for the second straight year, but that will be a thing of the past heading into 2025.

What's Next in 2025: After several years of no changes to the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the well-known market index made multiple changes in 2024.

The index replaced underperforming Walgreens with Amazon.com Inc in February. The index also replaced Intel and Dow Inc (DOW  ) with NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA  ) and Sherwin-Williams (SHW  ) respectively.

With the changes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average will now have four of the seven Magnificent 7 stocks heading into 2025 with Amazon (AMZN  ), Nvidia, Microsoft Corporation (MSFT  ) and Apple all included in the Dow.

The stocks that left the Dow Jones in 2024 were among the biggest losers in 2024 for the index, with Walgreens ranking worst for yearly performance, Intel ranking second worst and Dow ranking sixth worst at -27.0%.

The underperformance of several Dow Jones components kept the index down compared to other market barometers. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (DIA  ), which tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average, is up 14.0% year-to-date in 2024.

For comparison, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY  ), which tracks the S&P 500 Index, is up 23.8% year-to-date.

The Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS  ), which tracks the Magnificent 7 stocks, is up 68.5% year-to-date.

Having Amazon, Nvidia and Sherwin Williams as components to start 2024 would have made the index's returns look significantly different. While the three stocks that left the index were each down over 25% year-to-date in 2024, here are the year-to-date returns of the replacement stocks in 2024:

  • Amazon: +46.6%
  • Nvidia: +179.8%
  • Sherwin-Williams: +11.8%
The Dow Jones Industrial Average will look significantly different in 2025 than in previous years, and more changes could be ahead for stocks that have underperformed in the index.