The New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) also known as the “Big Board”, is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street, New York, USA. When it comes to market capitalization, NYSE is the World’s largest stock exchange. It is operated by NYSE Euronext and is made up of 5 rooms for trading purpose.

NYSE came into existence on May 17, 1792, when an agreement was signed under the buttonwood tree on Wall Street. It came to be known as NYSE when the first centralized location in the form of a room was located on 40 Wall Street.

NASDAQ is the NASDAQ stock market, an American stock exchange. Earlier it was known as National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, but now it is no longer used. It is an equity securities trading market with an electronic screen based phenomenon and is the largest such electronic equity securities trading market in the US.

NASDAQ came into existence in 1971 and was founded by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). They disinvested themselves following a series of sales in 2000 and 2001, and NASDAQ is currently operated by NASDAQ OMX Group, whose regulation is carried out by Securities and Exchange Commission. The NASDAQ boasts of about 3,700 companies and has the highest trading volume than any other stock exchange in the world.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is also known as Dow 30 or Dow Jones or simply Dow. This is one of the major stock market indices and was created by Wall Street Journal editor and one of the co-founders of Dow Jones & Company, Charles Dow along with Edward Davis and Charles Milford Bergstresser on May 26, 1896.

Initially Dow had only 12 companies listed in its index. These companies were, American Sugar, American Tobacco, Tennessee Coal & Iron, Chicago Gas, Distilling & Cattle Feeding, U.S. Leather, General Electric, American Cotton Oil, Laclede Gas, National Lead, North American, and U.S. Rubber.

The World Bank Group is an international developmental and financial institution. It is among the world’s largest development organizations which provide technical and financial aid to the developing countries of the world.

The World Bank has some affiliates- International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The International Development Association, The International Finance Corporation, The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. These all work together to achieve the goals of reducing poverty and providing improved lifestyle. This is done through providing assistance for infrastructure, education, health, trade, finance etc.

Working towards these goals, in fiscal 2009, The World Bank Group provided assistance to 767 projects worldwide. This totaled around $58.8 billion, distributed in loans, grants, credits and guarantees. During this time, IBRD granted $32.9 billion for 126 new projects. This sum was granted to 42 countries with middle-income and with creditworthy low income.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. announced net revenues of $45.17 billion and net earnings of $13.39 billion. This produced a 22.5% return on average common shareholders’ equity. These statistics were released for the year ended December 31, 2009. These statistics influenced the diluted earnings per common share which increased steeply from $4.47 for last year to $22.13 this year.

Goldman Sachs Group is known for its leadership in worldwide mergers and acquisitions and this year was no different. The group ranked top spot this year in announced and completed transactions.

Federal Reserve is also known as Federal Reserve System or Fed. It is United States’ central banking system. It conducts nation’s monetary policy, supervises and regulates banking institutions, maintains stability of financial system and is a major operator in the nation’s payments systems.

Federal Reserve is not owned by anyone and hence is subject to the Administrative Procedure Act. So, it is legally obligated to inform the masses, about the rulemaking and adjudication. Hence the flow of funds accounts of US for third quarter 2009 is as follows.

United States’ biggest bank reported a $5.2 billion loss in the fourth quarter. This loss was a result of the company’s decision to return the bailout money it had received from the government. However Bank of America reported a net income of $ 6.3 for full year of 2009. This was a welcome sign as the income rose as compared to net income of $4.0 billion in 2008.

The main concern for the corporation was as usual, the consumer loans that washed away much of the profits coupled with the repayment of $45 billion which the company received through Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP.