P/E of index question
 

So I have read a lot recently about how the P/E of the stock market is above it's historical average, then a guy comes on CNBC today and says it's at a 15 some odd year low. Is there a webpage out there that tracks this kind of information? Anyone know the facts about the P/E of say the S&P 500?

Re: P/E of index question
 

The way I usu do it is to look up the PE of a relevant ETF. For example, from Yahoo finance you can see that PE (TTM) of SPY was 15.61 on 30-Jun-07 and then all you have to do is compare price today w/ price then to figure out today's PE (possibly off by any change in earnings since then, probably minor).

I'll also use EEM & EFA in this way (for MSCI Emerging & World Ex-US).

One obvious caveat here is that ETFs are not exactly equal to the underlying index (sampling and all that) but I think for something like a PE there are going to be plenty close.

And if there's a better way, I'm also curious to hear it.

Re: P/E of index question
 

I did find http://www.marketwatch.com/quotes/?sid=3377 since I posted but I am really looking for historical values as well as current.

Re: P/E of index question
 

Well then, good luck. I pretty much asked the same question a few months ago and it seemed like having access to a bloomberg was the only answer.

But I was asking about finding historical earnings in general. If you are just looking for stuff about S&P500, there are all kinds of studies and article about the PE ratio for the last 100 years.

Re: P/E of index question
 

[ QUOTE ]
So I have read a lot recently about how the P/E of the stock market is above it's historical average, then a guy comes on CNBC today and says it's at a 15 some odd year low. Is there a webpage out there that tracks this kind of information? Anyone know the facts about the P/E of say the S&P 500?

[/ QUOTE ]
15-year low is about right, but still may be a little over average. The long-term P/E is about 14. P/E of 7 is "cheap," 14 is "fair," 21 is "expensive," and 28+ is "bubble."

-Tom