Market

Market in United States

Market Definition

(Lat. mens, merchandise; anciently, mercat). A public place and appointed time for buying and selling. A public place appointed by public authority, where all sorts of things necessary for the subsistence or for the convenience of life are sold. 14 N. Y. 356. All fairs are markets, but not vice versa. Bracton, lib. 2, c. 24; Co. Litt. 22; 2 Inst. 401; 4 Inst. 272. Markets are generally regulated by local laws. The franchise by which a town holds a market, which can only be by royal grant or immemorial usage. 21 Barb. (N. Y.) 296, 2 Bl. Comm. 37. By the term “market” is also understood the demand there is for any particular article; as, the cotton market in Europe is dull. See 15 Viner, Abr. 42; Comyn, Dig. This definition of Market is based on The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary.

Market Capitalization

A company’s market capitalization is the number of shares available on the market multiplied by the price of the stock at any given time. You can find a public company’s market capitalization by looking up the company in Yahoo Finance or Hoover’s.

For historical market capitalization, I usually use print products. For larger companies, the market capitalization is in Standard & Poor’s Stock Market Encyclopedia. For other companies, the S&P Daily Stock Price Record lists the number of shares outstanding at the top of a column listing the stock price for each day of the quarter. If the shares outstanding isn’t in the Daily Stock Price Record, check the relevant Mergent manual entry for the following year.

For smaller companies, the “tear sheets” usually list the market capitalization for small companies, and the Bloomberg reports (available from Bloomberg or Lexis) should have it too.

Market Share

A company’s market share is the total sales of a company’s product divided by the total sales of that type product for all companies. Market share data is especially important when structuring mergers, because the merging companies have to show that the merger will not create a monopoly, in violation of the anti-trust laws. There is more available information about market share in the Encyclopedia here.

Market Research

The entry about market research in this legal Encyclopedia includes the sources we have found useful for finding information about the market for a particular industry or product.

Market in Insurance Law and Legal Risk

Market, in the areas of Insurance Law and Legal Risk, may be defined in the following terms:(noun) an insurance carrier or program; (transitive verb) to convey an application to carriers (as a broker).

Practical applicationof Market in Insurance Law and Legal Risk

When your broker says she’ll talk to various markets about your application, she means she’ll get quotes from insurance carriers or programs. When she says she’s ready to market your application, she actually means the same thing. (And when a carrier is marketing, it is telling brokers about the coverage it sells.)

See Also
Stock Prices

Soft Market in the context of Real Estate

Resurces

See Also

  • Buyer’s Market

Market in the International Business Landscape

Definition of Market in the context of U.S. international business and public trade policy: A system of voluntary exchange that generates prices to decide how to allocate scarce resources.

Market Definition and Scope

Leading Case Law

Among the main judicial decisions on this topic:

United States v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.

Information about this important court opinion is available in this American legal Encyclopedia.

References

See Also

  • Business Law
  • Antitrust Laws

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