Weekly Economic Update: Chart Information, Data Sources, Calculations

Weekly Economic Update: Chart Information, Data Sources, Calculations

The Weekly Economic Update presents a table showing the performance of the DJIA, S&P 500 and NASDAQ over the past year, 5 years and 10 years in addition to YTD performance. The percentage change in these indices over 1 year, 5 years and 10 years are calculated using the data at bigcharts.com, an affiliate of MarketWatch. We divide the percentage change by 5 or 10 as applicable to determine the simple average annual return of an index over a 5-year or 10-year stretch. As we state below the table, these returns do not include reinvested dividends - for example, we present the performance of the S&P 500 in terms of the price return generally quoted in the media, not the total return.
 
We also present the real yield of the 10-year Treasury reported on the Friday afternoon before the issue date of each Weekly Economic Update and the real yield 1 year, 5 years and 10 years ago. These figures are taken straight from the Treasury Department's website. The real yield of the 10-year note = the yield before adjusting for inflation.