Review The Information For The Common Stock Of IBM.

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Ch. 1 INTERNET/EXCEL EXERCISES 1. Review the information for the common stock of IBM, using the website http://finance.yahoo.com. Insert the ticker symbol “IBM” in the box and click on “Get Quotes.” The main goal at this point is to become familiar with the information that you can obtain at this website. Review the data that are shown for IBM stock. Compare the price of IBM based on its last trade with the price range for the year. Is the price near its high or low price? What is the total value of IBM stock (market capitalization)? What is the average daily trading volume (Avg. Vol.) of IBM stock? Click on “5y” just below the stock price chart to see IBM’s stock price movements over the last five years. Describe the trend in IBM’s stock over this period. At what points was the stock price the highest and lowest? 2. Repeat the questions in exercise 1 for the Children’s Place Retail Stores (symbol PLCE). Explain how the market capitalization and trading volume for PLCE differ from that for IBM. Ch. 2 INTERNET/EXCEL EXERCISES 1. Go to http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2. Under “Categories,” select “Interest rates” and then select the three-month Treasury-bill series (secondary market). Describe how this rate has changed in recent months. Using the information in this chapter, explain why the interest rate changed as it did. 2. Using the same website, retrieve data at the beginning of the last 20 quarters for interest rates (based on the three-month Treasury-bill rate) and the producer price index for all commodities and place the data in two columns of an Excel spreadsheet. Derive the change in interest rates on a quarterly basis. Then derive the percentage change in the producer price index on a quarterly basis, which serves as a measure of inflation. Apply regression analysis in which the change in interest rates is the dependent variable and inflation is the independent variable (see Appendix B for information about applying regression analysis). Explain.