Dow Jones Joins Leading European Exchanges in Launch of Europe-Wide Equity Indexes.

Zurich, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--December 17, 1997--Dow Jones & Company, publisher of the Dow Jones Indexes, will join the three leading continental European stock exchanges in a joint venture to launch a new family of European stock indexes beginning in February 1998, it was announced today. The venture, formed earlier this year by Deutsche Borse, SBF-Paris Bourse and the Swiss Exchange, will now be owned equally by the four partners.

The new set of European stock indexes comes in view of the challenges facing asset managers and equity traders alike with the introduction of the Euro, the single European Currency, at the beginning of 1999. The Euro will dramatically change the way portfolio investors will look at Europe, the partners in the joint venture said. The new index family will provide the necessary benchmarks for the market to cope with the changing investment landscape and will serve as the basis for derivatives trading.

The basis of the indexes will be the Dow Jones Europe Stock Index, with segmentation to reflect special European needs. The index family will consist of broad-based benchmark indexes covering Europe as a whole and the in-countries of the EMU, with 19 sector indexes each. It will also include blue-chip indexes for Europe and the EMU; it is planned to license these blue-chip indexes for exchange-traded derivative contracts later in 1998. In greater detail:

-- There will be two broad-based benchmark indexes. One -- the

existing Dow Jones Europe Stock Index, with about 700 companies

-- will cover Europe as a whole. A second index, as a subset,

will cover the in-countries expected to join the EMU from the

beginning, with about 350 companies. Both indexes will cover

80% of the market capitalization of the participating countries.

-- In addition, an original classification of 19 industry sectors

has been defined, derived from the Dow Jones Global Indexes 

sectors, but adapted to European listed companies' profiles.

-- Also, the joint venture will create two blue-chip indexes for

Europe and the EMU as a subset of the broader indexes; each will

be composed of 50 stocks. Both will be sampled using a matrix

approach, selecting blue chip stocks according to their size,

liquidity profile and sectoral representativity.

The joint venture's Supervisory Board will be responsible for index methodology. It will be supported in this task by an Advisory Board representing market participants as well as academics. A rule book will be published describing the methodology of the indexes, including the selection and the regular revision process for the component stocks.

Peter Kann, chairman and chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Company, said "The agreement announced today is a major milestone for Dow Jones and our Dow Jones Indexes, and an important event for investors in Europe, as well as everyone interested in Europe. We look forward to helping create for Europe indexes that match the authoritative character and reliability that have marked the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the U.S. for more than 100 years."

Reto Francioni, Board Member of Deutsche Borse, said, "The three leading equity markets on the European continent are pleased to team up with the world renowned Dow Jones & Company in developing and distributing indexes which over time should become the benchmarks for equity traders in Europe."

Jean-Francois Theodore, Chairman and CEO of SBF-Paris Bourse, said, "Increasingly, in Europe and in the United States, market participants are developing a pan-European strategy rather than a country by country approach. They need to rely on a coherent system of European benchmark indexes and tradable blue chip indexes. This is what we will achieve together in our Euro-American joint venture."

Jorg Fisher, Chairman of the Swiss Exchange, said, "Exchanges have to focus on the needs of market participants. The new indexes are instruments the markets will need in the light of the Euro to come, and give us the pole position for European Monetary Union."

Deutsche Borse, SBF-Paris and the Swiss Exchange are the leading stock exchanges for equities and equity derivatives on the European continent. Together, their market capitalization amounts to more than half of that in all of Europe, as does their market share of the equity derivative markets in Europe. The three exchanges traded 194 million option and futures contracts in 1996.

In addition to the Dow Jones Indexes, including the Dow Jones Averages and the Dow Jones Global Indexes, Dow Jones & Company publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international editions, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, Barron's magazine and other periodicals, electronic information services and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Electronic information services include: Dow Jones Markets, a leading global provider of news and market information, decision-support applications, trading-room systems and transaction services for financial institutions; Dow Jones Newswires; and Dow Jones Interactive Publishing, which provides business information to corporations and consumers by computer, telephone, facsimile and radio. Beginning in early 1998, Dow Jones will be a co-owner with NBC of the CNBC television operations in Europe and Asia, which will be branded "a service of NBC and Dow Jones." Dow Jones will also provide news content to CNBC in the U.S., which will be similarly branded during the business day. Worldwide, the new CNBC will reach more than 165 million homes.

CONTACT: Press Contacts:

Deutsche Borse

Stefan Lutz, Frankfurt, 49 69 21 01 15 00

or

Dow Jones & Company

Richard Tofel, New York, 1-212-416-2951

Brigitte Trafford, London, 44-171-832-8103

or

SBF-Paris Bourse

Herve de Laitre, Paris, 33 1 49 27 11 31

or

Swiss Exchange

Michael Staheli, Zurich, 41 1 229 22 71

http://www.dowjones.com