market basket

noun

Definition of market basket

: a variety of consumer goods and services used to calculate a consumer price index

Examples of market basket in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Instead, candidates receive a market basket full of ingredients and must design a menu using all of those ingredients that reflects their personal cooking style. — Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press, "Schoolcraft College top chef Shawn Loving confronts the ultimate test," 16 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'market basket.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

6 Feb 2019

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The first known use of market basket was in 1943

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More Definitions for market basket

market basket

noun

Financial Definition of market basket

What It Is

A market basket is a group of items that simulate the overall price movements in a market.

How It Works

At an economic level, a market basket is a permanent set of goods and services that are bought and sold as staples in a functional economy. Analysts and policymakers use average price changes in a market basket as the primary gauge of inflation. For example, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is based on a market basket of consumer goods and services.

In the financial markets, a market basket includes a group of widely-held securities. An example would be the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).

Why It Matters

A market basket serves as a benchmark for measuring the price performance of other items in a market. The quality of a particular market basket is apparent in how closely the behavior of items in a market basket resembles the behavior of the overall financial market or the economy as a whole. Market baskets give investors and policy makers a simpler way of measuring and predicting market trends.

Source: Investing Answers