Although not absolutely necessary, you are advised to use a computer spreadsheet to work the following problem.

a. Use the price data from the table that follows for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, Wal-Mart, and Target to calculate the holding-period returns for the 24 months from May 2013 through May 2015.

MONTH S&P 500 WAL-MART TARGET 2013 $1,631 1,606 1,686 $74.84 74.49 77.94 72.98 73.96 76.75 81.01 78.69 $69.50 68.86 1.25 63.31 63.98 6479 63.93 63.27 July September November December 2014 1,682 1,757 1,806 1,848 1,783 1,859 1,872 1,884 1,924 1,960 1,931 2,003 1,972 2,018 2,068 56.64 62.54 60.51 March 76.43 April 7677 5.07 73.58 75.50 76.47 76.27 87.54 56.76 57.95 59.59 60.07 62.68 61.82 74.00 75.91 June August September October November 2015 January 1,995 2,105 March Eeril May 82.25 78.05 5.86 73.61 76.83 82.07 78.83 79.29 2,086 2,128