The sneaker company's sales correlate with U.S. GDP more closely than those of 24 other companies in the Dow index. That means that of the three newest Dow components (Nike, Visa and Goldman Sachs), Nike’s sales have the most power to predict the U.S. GDP. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-27/why-nike-is-a-weird-proxy-for-the-broader-economy