The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, or S&P 500, is perhaps the world’s most well-known stock index. The index contains about 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., making it a bellwether for stocks. It includes stocks across all 11 sectors of the economy, as ...
The S&P 500 is a stock market index that is viewed as a measure of how well the stock market is performing overall. It includes around 500 of the largest U.S. companies.Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising partners who compensate us when you tak...
The S&P 500 is considered to be a good benchmark for the general health of the U.S. stock market. The index measures the stocks of 500 of the largest publicly traded, or large-cap, U.S. companies ranging from Microsoft to Facebook. If you want to school yourself on the stock market...
Standard & Poor’s started as a stock index in 1923. It emerged in its present S&P 500 form on March 4th, 1957. Thanks to current technology, the index is now disseminated in real time. According to McGraw Hill Financial,“the index value is the quotient of the total float-adjusted mark...
S&P 500 FAQs What is the S&P 500? What are stock market indexes? What is the Nasdaq Composite Index? Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors...
The S&P 500 is right in the middle through, an index tracking the stocks of the largest and most successful American companies. The company list may change over time, but the index has long been the gold standard for stock market tracking and analysis. But where exactly does the S&P 500 ...
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Mark Hulbert is a regular contributor to MarketWatch. His Hulbert Ratings tracks investment newsletters that pay a flat fee to be audited. He can be reached atmark@hulbertratings.com. More:High five or high dive? What we know about stock returns in years ending in ‘5.’ ...
Another common U.S. stock market benchmark is theDow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). The S&P 500 is often the institutional investor's preferred index given its depth and breadth. The DJIA has historically been associated with significant equities from the retail investor's point of view. Inst...
The U.S. stock market is divided into 11 major sectors that cover every key industry. Sectors include energy, information technology, consumer staples, consumer discretionary, utilities, real estate, communication services, financial, industrial, materia