Charts are keyboard readable: focus a chart, then use the left and right arrow keys to step one reading at a time, hold Shift to step a year (ten readings on a yearly chart), Home and End for the first and last month, Escape to let go. In the timeline, tab to Window Start or Window End and use the arrow keys to move it.
S&P 500
About This Indicator
What Is the S&P 500?
Share prices of 500 of the largest U.S.-listed companies, weighted by market value, without dividends or inflation adjustment: from late 1968 to mid-1982 it went nowhere while consumer prices nearly tripled.
Why Does It Matter?
Most retirement accounts hold stocks, but the richest tenth of households own the large majority of shares, so a rally lifts the top far more than the middle.
Can Politics Influence It?
Taxes, regulation, trade, and deficits reach profits and interest rates; the Fed often moves it more.
Why It Starts in 1957
It began in March 1957, so Hoover, Roosevelt, and Truman carry no reading.
How Each Month Is Measured
Each month averages its daily closes, so one bad week cannot decide a term: October 1987 ended 10% below its average.
Key Idea
A share's price weighs future profits against what a safe bond pays, so the index can move against the economy: as rates climbed from December 2021 to October 2022, it fell about a fifth with unemployment at or below 4%.
Scored: Faster Growth Ranks Better
Source: Robert J. Shiller (Yale); FRED (S&P Dow Jones Indices). Online data, ie_data.xls (shillerdata.com); SP500 for months the file does not yet cover.
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