|
S&P 500 (Standard & Poor's 500) consists of 500
individually selected large companies. The S&P 500 isn't exactly "the
market", but it does cover about three-quarters of the total
capitalization of the entire U.S market. It
is a widely followed bench mark of stock market performance, the S&P500
includes 400 industrial firms, 40 financial stocks, 40 utilities and 20
transportation stocks. S&P 500 is also the basis of a good deal of index
investing. Inclusion in the index usually causes a stock to rise.
S&P500 has stated:
"We created this index to provide an effective way to measure the
performance of this subset of the S&P 500 and establish a basis for our
licenses to meet investor demand for a more efficient way to acquire the
underlying components of the S&P 500... Investors can also use this new
index as an alternative to the Nasdaq 100."
|
