Stock indices track the aggregate performance of a basket of leading companies and are a headline gauge of market sentiment and economic health. From Wall Street's S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 to Europe's FTSE 100 and DAX and Asia's Nikkei 225, index moves reflect earnings, rate expectations and global risk appetite. Live levels are shown below.
The Trend column shows an indicative trend line that updates as live prices stream in. It is not a chart of real intraday price history.
Indices are most active during their home-market cash sessions but are tradable nearly around the clock via futures and CFDs. They tend to move on the same macro drivers as currencies — central-bank policy, inflation and growth data — so pairing an index view with the economic calendar is essential. Read the latest market news and drill into individual stocks that drive each benchmark.
A stock index measures the combined performance of a basket of leading companies, so it works as a single gauge for a whole market. The headline names on this page include Wall Street's S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100, Europe's FTSE 100 and DAX, and Asia's Nikkei 225. Each one tracks a different group of companies, which is why their moves can diverge on any given day.
Because an index is built from many companies, it tends to move on broad drivers rather than a single firm: corporate earnings, central-bank interest-rate expectations, inflation and growth data, and the market's overall risk appetite. A large move in a heavily weighted member can also pull a whole index with it. You can follow the scheduled releases behind these swings on our economic calendar.
It depends on the exchange and the upstream feed. Index quotes come from Yahoo Finance and may be live or delayed, and each table shows a "Live" or "Delayed" pill so you always know which you are looking at. If the feed is temporarily unreachable the page shows last-known prices rather than breaking. Figures are for information and education only, not for order execution.
You cannot buy an index itself, because it is only a calculated number. Traders instead gain exposure through instruments that track it, such as index futures, CFDs or exchange-traded funds. You can explore funds that follow major benchmarks on our ETFs page and compare where to trade on our brokers page.
Each index is most active during its home market's cash trading session — for example New York hours for the S&P 500 and London hours for the FTSE 100 — although many are tradable nearly around the clock via futures and CFDs. That is why Asian, European and US benchmarks can react at different points in the day to the same piece of news.
