Is the stock market overvalued?

Updated

Are stocks overvalued? Marketwatch editor Mark Hulbert, founder of Hulbert Financial Digest, offers two barometers which investors should look at carefully.

Hulbert's first measure is the trailing, 12-month P/E barometer; using that metric, the P/E ratio of the S&P 500 is currently greater than 1,800-to-1.

You read correctly: it's greater than 1800-to-1. And, Hulbert adds, it gets even more jaw-dropping, due to the fact that trailing, 12-month earnings for the S&P 500 are likely to drop below zero later in 2009.

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