Quick Q on how to read share prices

Hi,

Sorry for stupid Q, but I’m reading the price of the S&P 500 as 1,007.57. Am I right in thinking this is $10.758 per share?

Also can anyone tell me what way the dollar will go against the Euro over the next 1 - 2 years? (Only joking!)

Cheers

davidpatrick said:

Hi,

Sorry for stupid Q, but I’m reading the price of the S&P 500 as 1,007.57. Am I right in thinking this is $10.758 per share?

Also can anyone tell me what way the dollar will go against the Euro over the next 1 - 2 years? (Only joking!)

Cheers

Click to expand...

How do you figure that? Its simply the price of a weighted index that gives a general view of the stock market.

While S&P (Standards & Poor's) is a company the S&P500 is an index that tracks the underlying shares:
http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/05/sp500calculation.asp

davidpatrick said:

Hi,

Sorry for stupid Q, but I’m reading the price of the S&P 500 as 1,007.57. Am I right in thinking this is $10.758 per share?

Click to expand...

The number 1,007.57 doesn't in itself tell you a whole lot any more than any index number taken in isolation does. The number ( and it's not a price ) only becomes meaningful when you compare it to other index numbers for the S&P 500. eg

S&P 500 index at close on August 11th 994.35

S&P 500 index at close on August 12th 1005.81

That's a rise of 11.46 points or 1.15%. So the prices of the largest 500 companies by market cap rose on average by 1.15% over the two days.