Seriously, it is .

Here are some of the recent changes.

• On 17 March 1997, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Travelers Group, and Wal-Mart joined the average, replacing Bethlehem Steel, Texaco, Westinghouse Electric and Woolworth.
• In 1998, Travelers Group merged with CitiBank, and the new entity, CitiGroup, replaced the Travelers Group.
• On 1 November 1999, Home Depot, Intel, Microsoft, and SBC Communications joined the average, replacing Union Carbide, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Sears, and Chevron.
• Between 1999 and 2004, several stocks in the index merged and/or changed names: Exxon became Exxon-Mobil after their merger; Allied-Signal merged with Honeywell and kept the Honeywell name; JP Morgan became JP Morgan Chase after their merger; Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing offically became 3M Corp; and Philip Morris renamed itself Altria.
• On 8 April 2004, American International Group, Pfizer, and Verizon joined the average, replacing AT&T, Eastman Kodak, and International Paper.

Imagine what the average might be if Bethlehem Steel, Texaco, Westinghouse Electric and Woolworth hadn't been replaced by Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Travelers Group, and Wal-Mart. Even better, imagine AT&T, Eastman Kodak, and International Paper instead of American International Group, Pfizer, and Verizon.

Your three and five year mutual fund averages are similarly gassed, by the way.

Post-diversion Quote of note:

[A]fter pretending for months that rising energy costs could be ignored because of low "core" inflation, traders today decided the price of oil matters after all.

The worry is that high oil prices are becoming embedded in the economy, subtly pushing up prices of all kinds of goods.

Dow, Shocked by CPI, Falls 200 Points
By Jerry Knight
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; 4:51 PM

The stock market went into a nosedive today after Wall Street caught a whiff of inflation -- a smell that's been in the air for some time.

The Dow Jones industrial average suffered its biggest point loss of the year, falling 214 points to 11,205.61.

The Nasdaq Stock Market composite index dropped for the seventh day in a row, down 33 points to 2,195.80 Today's loss wiped out the last of Nasdaq's gains far this year, leaving the index down 10 points since Dec. 31.

The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index lost 22 points, closing at 1,270.32.

Stocks plunged in response to the government's report that the consumer price index jumped 0.6 percent last month.

That was only 0.1 more than what was forecast by economists surveyed by Bloomberg and exactly what the Wall Street Journal predicted this morning.

But the market responded as if the CPI report were a bolt from the blue. The rise in inflation blew apart hopes that the Federal Reserve won't have to boost interest rates higher to fight inflation. Interest rates jumped immediately in anticipation the Fed will increase rates again next month.