The FTSE Nareit Americas REIT Index, by comparison, has a current yield of 2.9%.
But by comparison, the Russell 2000 Index, which is a broad measure of riskier small-cap stocks, is up 12%.
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In comparison, the MSCI World index has doubled from its lows, in U.S. dollar terms, and today is about 15% below the 2007 peak.
By comparison, the MSCI Emerging Markets index, which has taken it on the chin over the last two years, is down just 4.8%.
By comparison, last month's confidence index was 94.2, and the lowest reading, in November, was 83.9.
An apt comparison is between Greece and the NASDAQ bank index of 473 domestic and foreign banks.
For comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock market index is up 6.37% for the first six months of 2011.
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Another reason for the popularity of index funds, especially in the institutional market, is that comparison to widely available benchmarks makes performance measurement so easy.
The yellow metal had been trading in tandem with the broader commodity complex this year, as a comparison between the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) and the PowerShares DB Commodity Index shows.
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The highest-flying markets in recent weeks have been for bonds issued by the least creditworthy companies: those rated B and lower. (For comparison, the highest is AAA and D stands for default.) The Merrill Lynch index of B-rated corporate bonds now yields 7.4% a quarter of a point less than a month ago, even though Treasury-bond yields are higher.
See Figure 1 for a comparison of both variants of Case-Shiller and their corresponding analogues based on the Zillow Home Value Index.
This was a valid comparison on December 31, 1998, the date to which BofA Merrill Lynch has retroactively created its new index.
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