CALDEIRÃO DE BOLSA

S&P 500 Statistics
As of January 31, 2003

Total Market Value ($ Billion) 7,887
Mean Market Value ($ Million) 15,774
Median Market Value ($ Million) 6,746
Weighted Ave. Market Value ($ Million) 73,614
Largest Cos. Market Value ($ Million) 253,743
Smallest Cos. Market Value ($ Million) 258
Median Share Price ($) 28.515
P/E Ratio 28.49
Indicated Dividend Yield (%) 1.89

For today's chart, we took every week-ending S&P 500 PE ratio since 1940 and compared how the inflation-adjusted S&P 500 performed over the subsequent 4, 13, 26, and 52-week periods. On average, the market performed better when the PE ratio was low (below 8) than when the PE ratio was high (above 20). Keep in mind that these are overall averages and that the market has sometimes bucked the trend. For example, the PE ratio was well above 20 during much of the tech bubble of the late nineties. The PE ratio currently stands at 30, which suggests that the stock market is still not cheap.