Not all stock market indexes are create equal. Different methods are used to calculate various indexes, and different indexes will yield different assessments of "market performance." Using one of the following data sources, retrieve the stock price for 5 different firms on the first and last trading days of the previous month.
www.nasdaq.com
www.nyse.com
www.bloomberg.com
finance.yahoo.com

1. Compute the monthly return on a price-weighted index of the 5 stocks.
2. Compute the monthly return on a value-weighted index of the 5 stocks.
3. Compare the two returns, explain the differences, and defend which you think is a better measure of the "true" performance of this sector of the market.

The yield spread between various fixed-income securities is an indicator of their relative risk. That risk derives from a number of factors, ranging from macroeconomic conditions to unique security risk. Use the following Web links to review the yields on Treasury bonds, investment grade corporate bonds, noninvestment grade corporate bonds, and mortgage-backed securities.
www.investinginbonds.com
www.bondsonline.com
www.investorwords.com

1. Calculate the yield spread between an investment grade corporate bond and a noninvestment grade bond.
2. Calculate the yield spread between an investment grade corporate bond and a Treasury bond.
3. Calculate the yield spread between an investment grade corporate bond and a mortgagebacked security.
4. Using your spread data, assess the relative risk of the four fixed income securities.