The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a price-weighted average of 30 significant US stocks. It was first calculated on May 26, 1896 by Charles Dow, who created the index with the intent to show how stocks were performing as a whole rather than individually. The DJIA is one of the most followed and influential indices in the world. The S&P 500 Index (Standard and Poor’s 500 Index) is a stock market index of 500 large publicly traded US companies using market capitalization-weighted methodology to determine its constituents. Along with the DJIA, it’s often used as a barometer for equity ma
What is the Dow Jones Industrial Average?
A larger-than-life graph, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was created in 1896. It consists of 30 US stocks, excluding financials, utilities, and real estate investment trusts, and is a symbol of the US economy. The index is a composite of the 30 stocks and represents a wide range of sectors, including transportation and consumer goods. Dow Jones stock prices are adjusted daily based on the change in share prices, and the average changes throughout the day for each stock in the index. This is done to create the right balance for the index and eliminate the chance for a big market drop. Stocks are added, dropped, or adjusted as needed to keep the average within 0.2% of the previous day’s closing value.
The S&P 500 Index
The S&P 500 is a price-weighted index, meaning it’s weighted towards larger companies in the market. To ensure that the index represents the entire US stock market, S&P caps the weight of companies with market capitalization below $700 million to 5% and the weight of companies with market capitalization above $700 million to 10%. For investors, the S&P 500 Index represents the large-cap segment of the market. Because it reflects the vast majority of the market’s overall value, this is the best indicator of where the stock market is headed, no matter what the Dow Jones Industrial Average is telling you. The most popular stocks that make up the S&P 500 are from the technology, consumer discretionary, financials, industrials, and healthcare sectors.
Dow Jones Today
Jeremy Schwartz, Director of Research It’s been a great start to 2018 for the US stock market. Despite the recent pullback, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) was up over 1.5% year-to-date as of January 4. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is up more than 2.3% over the same period. For the third consecutive year, the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX) is the largest holding of many individual investors’ portfolios. The investment case for the S&P 500 as a whole appears to be strengthening.
Closing Price of DJIA and S&P 500 for Today
Finally, the NASDAQ Composite Index is a market capitalization-weighted index that is designed to measure the performance of NASDAQ listed stocks. The NASDAQ Composite Index is widely used in NASDAQ and Nasdaq markets for research and investment purposes. The closing prices of the DJIA and the S&P 500 for July 18 are seen in this table. Data source: Dow Jones. Chart by author. As you can see, the DJIA opened lower than where it ended on the same day last month, and down 1% year-to-date, according to the Dow Jones Market Data Group. The S&P 500 is also down about 1% year-to-date, and down about 2% over the past month. At the same time, the NASDAQ Composite is up nearly 12% year-to-date and down just 1.3% over the past month.
Current State of the Market
At the end of May, the Dow closed above 22,000 for the first time. Though the index dropped slightly in early June, it has been trending up over the past few weeks. The current level of 22,330 may not seem like much, but this is an upward trend and a signal that the stock market is holding up pretty well. While the bull run may have run its course, a pullback is likely to be temporary and not yet ready to turn into a full-fledged crash. According to Bloomberg, there are five reasons the market is up today: 1. “Trump Bump” has kicked in. While the election did not result in an overnight rise in stocks, the election did start a sustained upward trend in the market.
Trading Range for Today
Despite volatile markets, we expect the major indices to trade sideways today with the DJIA showing a slight upward trend, while the S&P 500 Index (SPX) may be flat-to-up. In our opinion, small-cap stocks have gained strength and will continue to do so, while the rest of the market is seeing some pullback. Therefore, the trend is still up for the day, but not exactly a blue-chip move. Also, some area of consolidation is expected before a next leg higher. These are the two ways to have a balanced approach to trading stocks.
Conclusion
The events of recent weeks have probably damaged the reputation of the markets, and they’re all but certain to cause short-term adjustments. The purpose of this article was to get you to think about what to expect in the short term and what you can do to minimize losses and maximize gains. As I’ve often said, the market’s extreme moves will pass, but if you try to short-term timing the market and the moves that are forced on you as a result, then you will be a loser. As discussed, short-term options are risky and don’t guarantee profits. market’s extreme volatility and short-term moves.