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Money words

Stock

A small slice of ownership in a company. One unit is called a share.

Also called: share, shares

How “stock” came up in recent issues.

S&P 500
A stock market index that tracks about 500 of the biggest U.S. companies. It's the most common way to measure how the market did.
Dow Jones Industrial Average
A stock market index that tracks 30 large U.S. companies.
Nasdaq Composite
A stock market index of the thousands of companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. It leans heavily toward tech companies.
Earnings per share
A company's profit divided by its number of shares. Wall Street compares it with what analysts expected.
Revenue
All the money a company brings in from sales, before any costs are taken out.
Guidance
A company's forecast of its future sales or profits. Stocks often move more on guidance than on past results.

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