Standard and Poor’s 500 commonly known as S&P 500 index was introduced in 1957 to track 500 publicly traded domestic companies in United States. The companies listed on the S&P 500 represent a who’s who of U.S. industry, and additions and deletions from the list often indicate market trends. The value of the S&P and various stocks within the index are closely watched by market participants since their performance represents a gauge as to the health of the U.S. economy. It’s US address is 55 Water St FL 37 New York, NY, 10041-320
The components of the S&P 500 are selected by a committee and are determined to be representative of the industries that make up the U.S. economy. In order to be added to the S&P, a company should be based in the US and must meet certain liquidity-based size requirements: market capitalization must be greater than or equal to $8.2 billion; annual dollar value traded to float-adjusted market capitalization is greater than 1.0m; a minimum monthly trading volume of 250,000 shares in each of the six months leading up to the evaluation date.
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S&P 500 opens at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time, and closes at 4:00 p.m. It is open from Monday to Friday and apart from Saturday and Sunday it is also closed on 9 other days i.e., New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day (Washington’s Birthday), Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
S&P 500 performance is seen as a snapshot of the state of US business, and by extension, the US economy. But this index does have some shortcomings. Its market-cap weightings may favor some companies, or sectors, over others; the bandwidth doesn’t always reflect the entire domestic stock market; and it excludes companies that aren’t based in the US. Still, the returns of individual stocks, stock funds, and other assets are all compared against the S&P 500. So it can be a good tool for investors to guide their individual investment choices.