New York ? AT&T, International Paper and Eastman Kodak are being dropped from the Dow Jones industrial average and replaced with other companies in a switch that reflects the decline of U.S. manufacturing and the rise of health care and financial services.

The three longtime components of the 30-stock index will be replaced April 8 by insurance giant AIG, the telephone company Verizon, and pharmaceutical maker Pfizer.

“Our main focus in this particular group of changes was not who do we kick out or replace. It was to recognize the trend of the growth of the financial or health-care sectors,” said John Prestbo, editor of Dow Jones Indexes and markets editor of The Wall Street Journal.

The Journal’s top editors select the Dow’s components.

“When it came to selecting companies to leave the Dow to make room for the new ones, we took recognition of another trend, and that is basic materials stocks have become less important, less weighty in the market.”

Verizon joins another Baby Bell, SBC Communications, which was added in 1999. It replaces its former parent, AT&T, which had been a Dow component since 1939. International Paper had been in the index since 1956, and Kodak since 1930.

“Everybody looks at the Dow. It’s a sign that your company really is one of the engines of the economy,” said Jim Raphalian, head of institutional trading at Schwab Soundview Capital Markets.

Kodak, the struggling film and camera company that has been one of the index’s worst-performing stocks, downplayed the change.

“Membership in any index has no bearing on our ability to manage the company for profitable growth,” spokesman Gerard Meuchner said.