Today’s Valuations
WANT TO CHECK ON current stock and bond market valuations? Here’s where you can get the latest on some key market yardsticks:
- Find out the S&P 500’s price-earnings ratio based on trailing 12-month reported earnings.
- Look up the S&P 500’s cyclically adjusted price-earnings (CAPE) ratio. CAPE compares current share prices to average inflation-adjusted earnings for the past 10 years.
- See where U.S. stocks are trading relative to the value of corporate assets. This measure of stock market value is known as Tobin’s Q.
- Find out the dividend yield on U.S. equity real estate investment trusts. The lowest yield in the FTSE NAREIT index’s half-century history was 2.6%, recorded in December 2021. REIT dividend yields tend to rise and fall along with broad market interest rates.
- Check on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note’s yield, a crucial number used to price everything from mortgages to stocks. Based on the difference between that yield and the yield on inflation-indexed Treasurys, you can calculate what inflation rate the financial markets expect over the next decade.
- Find out the gap between the yield on high-yield junk bonds and that on Treasurys. The gap tends to be wider when there’s greater concern about the economy and hence the ability of junk-bond issuers to meet their obligations.
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Might be interesting to add here the current equity risk premium and dividend yield.