The Relationship Between Stock Exchanges And Indices

The Relationship Between Stock Exchanges and Indices [Chart]

PLOTTING ALMOST 5,000 U.S. LARGE CAPS ON THE NYSE, NASDAQ, S&P 500, AND DJIA

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

The NYSE and NASDAQ are the two largest stock exchanges in the world by market capitalization. However, what is their relation to major indices such as the S&P 500, S&P 100, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average?

Today’s chart breaks down the composition of the 4,500+ large cap stocks that are traded on the NYSE and NASDAQ, showing how the indices are currently derived. (For another refresher, check out our post on the difference between the Dow, S&P 500, and the NASDAQ.)

The S&P 500, founded in 1923, is considered one of the best overall indicators of the U.S. stock market. Composed of 118 companies from the NASDAQ and 382 companies from the NYSE, it represents the 500 companies with the highest market capitalizations that have common stock listed on either exchange. The S&P 500 is a capitalization-weighted index with components weighted based on the total market value of their outstanding shares. The larger the company, the more the impact it will have on determining the price of the overall index.

The S&P 100 is similar to the S&P 500, but it is composed of the 100 largest companies on the market, with 79 from the NYSE and 21 from the NASDAQ.

Lastly, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is made up of 30 stocks, with 26 based on the NYSE and 4 based on the NASDAQ. The Dow ensures that it picks companies from every industry, while the S&P 100 picks the 100 largest companies by market capitalization. That’s why Travellers Companies Inc., at a market cap of $34 billion, is the only company on the Dow that is not on the S&P 100.