Wall Street definition

Wall Street is a metonym for the US financial industry and the markets it runs. It covers the major stock exchanges, investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, brokerages, and the traders and analysts who work in them.

Wall Street is also a real street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, home to the New York Stock Exchange. In market commentary the name is used in the broad sense far more often than the literal one, standing in for institutional finance and investor sentiment rather than a single address.

Wall Street is usually set against Main Street. Wall Street stands for large financial institutions, capital markets, and corporate finance. Main Street stands for households, small businesses, and the wider real economy, so the two terms mark the gap between finance and everyday commerce.

Wall Street Example

A news headline reads, "Wall Street falls after stronger-than-expected inflation data."

This does not mean only the firms sitting on Wall Street itself declined.

It means major US stock markets and large financial institutions sold off, because stronger inflation raises the prospect of higher interest rates.