The S & P 500 is an index of 500, of the largest U.S. stock companies. It serves as an indicator of how the U.S. economy is performing. Often these stocks are referred to as "the market"

The S & P 500 is a combination of the biggest, named stocks in the country. You are probably familiar with names such as GE, IBM, and AT & T. These are 3 of the 500 securities in the index. This is the exclusive club of the "blue chip" stocks. The highest business producers that contribute to the GDP. The S & P 500 represents every know sector including the banks, the insurance companies, manufacturing, and telecommunications companies.

People often look at the performance of the S & P 500, as the indicator of how the economy are doing. The large cap companies in the index do a majority of the country's business. Therefore this is the reason the S & P 500 is sometimes called "the market." When the index does not perform well, many begin to look at holes in the U. S. economy. Many began to take stock in the fact, that businesses move in cycles and so does the economy as a whole.

The S & P 500 is the index that many of us use for guidance, when trying to gauge where the U.S. economy is going. These companies, within the index are some of our strongest producers of goods and services in this country, and throughout the world.

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