2007-06-27 23:44:27 · 3 answers · asked by r sharma 1 in Business & Finance ➔ Investing
S&P stands for "Standard and Poors," the name of an investment research company (now owned by McGraw Hill Publishing) that sells information about stocks, bonds, and the companies that issue them. They keep an index of stocks (the S&P 500) to measure over-all performance of the stock market. They also provide other indices for various market segments. The S&P index is usually the second most often reported index -the Dow being the first.
See all the S&P indices at:
http://www2.standardandpoors.com/portal/site/sp/en/us/page.family/indices_ei_us/2,3,2,2,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0.html
Don't let the excitement kill you.
2007-06-27 23:52:55 · answer #1 · answered by JSGeare 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
the S&P 500 is the most widely watched index for professionals. it more representative of the overall stock market than the dow jones industrial average.
the S&P 500 is a capitalization weighted index. This means that the top 500 companies, in terms of what it would take to buy the entire company are included in the index, without overlapping. It also means that when you invest in an index fund tied to the s&p 500 - the overwhelming majority of your money goes into the top companies within that index. It isnt spread equally amongst the 500.
2007-06-28 09:30:43 · answer #2 · answered by james_r_keene 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
John G is correct (for the most part). The DOW only
represents 30 top stocks. The S&P 500 is the top 500 publicly held companies in the USA.
The market is more represented by the S&P 500 (when comparing the two).
2007-06-28 08:55:06 · answer #3 · answered by Common Sense 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋