50th Anniversary of the S&P 500

March 6, 2007 9:00am by

We normally never do press releases — I find they are pretty worthless, and given the sheer ignorant laziness of the PR flacks who send us outrageously off topic garbage, they all get deleted (99% of them unread).

But there were so many interesting details in this one that we succumbed to its numerological charms.

Here now, some fascinating trivia about the S&P500:

The S&P 500 was launched on March 4th, 1957.

Closing price on March 5, 1957 = 44.42

Average closing price since 1957 = 377.69

Average point change since 1957 = 0.11

Average percentage change since 1957 = 0.03%

S&P 500 closed up 6,608 days; average gain = 2.71 or 0.63%

S&P 500 closed down 5,900 days; average loss = -2.80 or -0.64%

73 days of no change in the price of the S&P 500

Best one day point gain = March 16, 2000, +66.33

Worst one day point loss = March 14, 2000, -83.95

Best one-day percentage gain = October 21, 1987, +9.10%

Worst one-day percentage loss = October 19, 1987 -20.47%

Average yield = 3.19% (currently 1.73%)

Average P/E on GAAP 17.37 (currently 17.74)

Average payout 49.64% (currently 30.58%)

First closed at or over 100 on June 4, 1968

First closed at or over 200 on November 2, 1985

First closed at or over 500 on March 24, 1995

First closed at or over 1,000 on February 2, 1998

First closed at or over 1,500 on March 22, 2000

Highest close = 1527.46 on March 24, 2000

Best year = 1958, 38.06%

Worst year = 1974, -29.72%

Best quarter = Q1 1975, +21.59%

Worst quarter = Q3 1974, -26.12%

Best month = October 1974, 16.30%

Worst month = October 1987, -21.76%

Estimated shares traded for the underlying issues is 4,287,212,318,580

Estimated value: $1.2 trillion is directly invested in the index.

10.83% total return, of which 32.87% is from reinvested dividends

Best stock Altria (formerly Phillip Morris), $1 invested now worth $8,400+

86 issues are still in the index since 1957

On the aside, why would S&P release "30 Interesting Data Points" on the S&P500’s 50th anniversary? 50 Would have been ideal, while 25 more workable. The only significant numerical correlation I can think of for the number 30 is thats how many stocks there are in the Dow Industrials . . .

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Source:
S&P Celebrates 50th Anniversary of the S&P 500
PRNewswire-FirstCall
February 28, 2007
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/
www/story/02-28-2007/0004536425&EDATE=

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What's been said:

Discussions found on the web:
  1. rob commented on Mar 6

    they should have gone for 500 interesting data points

  2. Tom Barta commented on Mar 6

    “86 issues are still in the index since 1957”

    That means 414 are not. To be sure, there’s been plenty of M&A in the past 50 years, but this stat ought be somewhat cautionary to CEO’s.

  3. David Andrew Taylor commented on Mar 6

    30 probably has nothing to do with the Dow. More likely, they could only come up with 30 items.

  4. C. Maoxian commented on Mar 6

    Love the 86 originals remain stat. Index investors revel in the glory of survivorship bias!

  5. The Big Picture commented on Jun 22

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