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A stock index is designed to show the performance of the stock market. Here are some leading indexes:
Recent Performance
Go to the Web site http://finance.yahoo.com/. Enter the symbol for any of the indexes (^DJI for the Dow Jones, ^SPC for the S&P 500, ^IXIC for the Nasdaq, and ^NYA for the NYSE) and click GO. This will bring up the current value of the index, shown in a table. Click Basic Chart in the panel on the left, and it will bring up a chart showing the historical performance of the index. Directly above the chart is a series of buttons that allows you to choose the number of years and to plot the relative performance of several indexes on the same chart. You can even download the historical data in spreadsheet form by clicking Historical Prices in the left panel.