2007-09-21 19:27:55 · 3 answers · asked by jrj8417 1 in Social Science ➔ Economics
The dow jones industrial average and the S&P 500 are both stock price indices.
There are 2 key differences:
1. The dow includes the 30 largest- at least roughly- publicly traded firms while the S&P 500 is constructed to broadly represent the public equity markets in the US.
2. The dow is price weighted, while the S&P 500 value weighted.
Because of these differences, they are not directly comparable (i.e., one is not better than the other). Instead they answer different questions and offer different insights.
2007-09-22 08:01:01 · answer #1 · answered by Homer J. Simpson 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
S&P--Stands for Standard and Poor--which is a stock rating company. There is a "S&P 500 Index" which monitors the average of 500 companies.
Dow-Jones--Is the closely watch stock index of 30 companies which "represent" a cross section of industry.Dow-Jones company is also the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.
2007-09-22 02:36:58 · answer #2 · answered by Christine P 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Dow is an indicator based on the top 30 industrials . . .
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cp?s=%5EDJI
While the S&P is the top 500
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/cp?s=%5EGSPC
(The component list for each indices )
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2007-09-22 02:39:38 · answer #3 · answered by kate 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋