Answers.com > Wiki Answers > Categories > Business & Finance > Investing and Financial Markets > Stock Market > What is the S and P 500 Index?

What is the S and P 500 Index?

In: Stock Market [Edit categories]

Answer:

The S&P 500 is a value weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large cap common stocks actively traded in the United States. The stocks included in the S&P 500 are those of large publicly held companies that trade on either of the two largest American stock markets, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. Almost all of the stocks included in the index are among the 500 American stocks with the largest market capitalizations.

After the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 is the most widely followed index of large-cap American stocks. It is considered a bellwether for the American economy, and is included in the Index of Leading Indicators. Some mutual funds, exchange traded funds, and other managed funds, such as pension funds, are designed so as to mimic the performance of the S&P 500 index. Hundreds of billions of US dollars have been invested in this fashion.

The index is the best known of the many indices owned and maintained by Standard & Poor's, a division of McGraw-Hill. S&P 500 refers not only to the index, but also to the 500 companies that have their common stock included in the index. The ticker symbol for the S&P 500 index varies. Some examples of the symbol are GSPC, INX and $SPX. The stocks included in the S&P 500 index are also part of the broader S&P 1500 and S&P Global 1200 stock market indices.

First answer by Anandvijayakumar. Last edit by Anandvijayakumar. Contributor trust: 783 [recommend contributor ]. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question].

[report abuse]

Can you answer these Stock Market questions?

	How can a company stock be listed on different stock exchanges?	Answer it!
	How to buy Chinese stocks on shanghai stock exchange?	Answer it!
	What does AlaskCom mean in stocks?	Answer it!
	How many stock exchange companies are there?	Answer it!
	How can you learn about stock market in Malayalam?	Answer it!

Relevant answers:

Why was the S and P 500 formed?
The Standard and Poor's (S and P) 500 index was created (in its present mode) in 1958 in order to make indexes more popular with the investing public.
500 S OF A P IN A R?
500 sheets of a paper in a ream
What does s and p 500 do?
The S&P 500 is a value weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large cap common stocks actively traded in the United States. The stocks included in the S&P 500 are those of...
What is s p 500?
The S&P 500 refers to Standard & Poor's 500, an index of the 500 largest U.S. companies. Many people use this index as an indicator for how the U.S. economy is doing. If the S&P 500 goes up...
What is the S P 500?
An index which performance generally reflects the returns of the large-company US universe. It is computed by Standard and Poor's, a division of McGraw-Hill Company. The 500 stocks are chosen by the...