“The Dow Jones Industrial Average will be available to investors for the first time well before U.S. trading, using prices from Europe, as part of a move by Frankfurt’s Deutsche Boerse to start trading U.S. shares in Germany,” writes Silvia Ascarelli in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“The German exchange said it will begin trading the shares of about 200 U.S. companies in September. Deutsche Boerse said that from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. German time (which is 3 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time), it will trade all 30 shares in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Standard and Poor’s 100-stock index, the Nasdaq 100 index and the Dow Jones Global Titans.”

“To support that effort, Dow Jones & Co.’s Dow Jones Indexes, which maintains the Dow Jones averages, said it will begin calculating “indicative” levels for the industrial average at 9 a.m. in Germany — that is, usually 6 1/2 hours prior to the opening of the U.S. market — using prices on Germany’s Xetra electronic-trading system. That means the industrial average will be calculated on a real-time basis for 13 hours a day.”

” ‘Now more than ever, investors need to know how the market is doing, at any time of day or night,’ said Peter Kann, chairman of Dow Jones. ‘The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a key barometer throughout the global marketplace and this is our first step in making the Dow Jones Industrial Average available around the clock.’ “

“Dow Jones also is the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and The Wall Street Journal Online.”

“Dow Jones added that the Deutsche Boerse will also offer prices for the components of the Dow Jones Global Titans 50, a global blue-chip-stock index. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and three small German brokers will act as market makers for the U.S. shares.”

“Deutsche Boerse also said it will offer options on about 10 U.S. stocks on the Eurex derivatives market, of which it owns 50%. Deutsche Boerse identified four of those stocks: Cisco Systems Inc., International Business Machines Corp., Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. Eurex won’t be launching futures-and-options contracts based on the DJIA.”

“The new trading plan aims to compete with the London Stock Exchange’s SEAQ International system. Deutsche Boerse said prices for U.S. shares will be quoted in euros. The LSE’s service quotes international shares in sterling, and Nasdaq Europe plans to quote U.S. share prices in dollars.”