General Electric suffered a crowning ignominy on Tuesday as overseers of the Dow Jones Industrial Average kicked the beleaguered company out of the stock gauge it has inhabited for more than a century. Once the world’s most valuable company, GE will be replaced by Walgreens Boots Alliance, the Deerfield, Illinois-based pharmacy chain created in a 2014 merger. The change will take effect prior to the open of trading next Tuesday. Down 26%, GE is the worst performer in the Dow in 2018, as it was last year, as well. "It was an issue not of if, but when," said Quincy Krosby, the chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. "The GE that was dominant in the Dow in the ’70s and ’80s is no longer the same GE." The change means the last original Dow member has finally been removed from the benchmark formed in 1896, with GE joining the likes of Distilling & Cattle Feeding, National Lead, Tennessee Coal & Iron and US Rubber. GE briefly left the index, but has been in it continuously since ...
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