What is Across the Board?

The term, across the board, is a market-wide directional movement, or a market condition where the majority of sectors and stocks move in exactly the same directions. Usually, market-wide events bring about these movements. The phrase now refers to improvement (or decrease) in economic performance across all metrics for the stock of a particular company, or across a specific part of a national economy.

How is Across The Board Used?

Supposing you get to know in the financial media that the stock market is currently up across the board, this implies that majority of the stocks are up on that particular day's trading. The term comes from the New York Stock Exchange big board, one which stock prices were previously written on; when most of the prices were either up or down, these upward or downward movements were shown across the board. The Big Board serves as a metonym for the New York Stock Exchange. For example, here are some latest headlines: Forbes - "Improvement Seen Across The Board For Urban Outfitters In The First Quarter", after the company surpassed expectations for sales and also earnings, or from Home Textiles Today - "Burlington: Home a hit across the board" after "lower markdowns and slightly better mark-ups delivered a strong quarter" for Burlington Stores. This term is also used globally, for example, to show extensive tumult or improvements in some economic sectors: for instance in The Philippine Star - "Term deposit rates up across the board" or in the Gulf Times - "Across-the-board selling pressure weighs on Qatar shares". The focus of journalism on the stock market is a common place where the idiom is used, like the article from Money: "Losses were felt across the board in the first quarter not just in the sectors which performed excellently well when 2017 began but in both areas of the market that were economically sensitive, like basic materials and real estate, and defensive areas, like utilities and consumer staples.