Market capitalization

Market capitalization, or market cap, is a measurement of corporate or economic size equal to the stock price times the number of shares outstanding of a public company. As owning stock represents owning the company, including all its assets, capitalization represents the public opinion of a company's net worth and is a determining factor in stock valuation. Likewise, the capitalization of stock markets or economic regions may be compared to other economic indicators. The global market capitalization was $51.225 trillion in March 2007 , indicating a dominant force in the global economy.