Dow Jones Licenses First Trust Advisors to Create Annuities, Unit Trusts Based on Dow Jones Industrial Average Investment Strategy.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 18, 1997--Dow Jones & Company announced today that it has licensed First Trust Advisors L.P. to create annuities and unit investment trusts based on a strategy of investing in the 10 highest dividend-yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

"We are delighted that this agreement will add to the types of Dow Jones Industrial Average-based investments available to investors," said Michael A. Petronella, managing director of Dow Jones Indexes. "These additional investment vehicles become available just a month after the historic kickoff of trading futures and options contracts based on the DJIA at the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Board Options Exchange."

First Trust Advisors, a Lisle, Illinois, investment advisory firm, and its affiliate, Nike Securities L.P., plan to offer annuities and unit investment trust products based on a popular strategy applied to the components of the DJIA. The strategy involves owning the top 10 dividend-yielding stocks of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The traditional strategy calls for putting equal amounts of money in the 10 highest-yielding DJIA stocks for the past 12 months and holding them 12 months. Then, these stocks are replaced by the next year's 10 high-yielders.

"We are very excited about this opportunity with Dow Jones, as we continue to look for strategic opportunities to improve and expand our product line," said James Bowen, president of Nike Securities, a leading sponsor of unit investment trusts.

Used by investors for at least 60 years, the strategy is designed to select so-called blue-chip stocks currently out of favor and, therefore, under priced, as evidenced by their high dividend yield in relationship to their market price. Commonly known as the "Dogs of the Dow" strategy, it has variations, such as owning fewer than 10 of the DJIA high-yielders.

Under the licensing agreement, First Trust Advisors and Nike Securities are offering products designed to make it simple for individual investors to pursue the strategy and its variations. Nike Securities has been providing strategy-based investment products since 1993.

In June, for the first time in the 101-year history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones licensed the American Stock Exchange and the two Chicago exchanges mentioned earlier to offer trading in investment vehicles based on the DJIA. Trading commenced on the CBOT and CBOE on June 6, and the Amex expects to start trading early next year in shares of a unit investment trust based on the DJIA. The product, to be known as "Diamonds," is designed to offer investors a way to trade the DJIA as they trade shares of a single stock.

In addition to the Dow Jones Indexes, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) 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. Dow Jones also produces international business television programming.

CONTACT: Dow Jones, Sanford Jacobs [phone]

Nike Securities, David Partain (630)-241-8669