stock market news

A stock market, also known as an equity market, encompasses the exchange of company shares between buyers and sellers. When private companies seek to raise funds via stock markets, they typically first "go public" in an initial public offering, after which their shares are available for secondary trading. Secondary stock market trading is centered on several stock exchanges which allow regulated secondary market trading of publicly traded securities between individual investors and institutions alike. While trades are primarily made via exchanges (some examples include the New York Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange), when discussing the performance of the "stock market", most investors are referring to composite indexes that represent a broad group of publicly traded stocks (some examples include the S&P 500 and the Nikkei 225).