In the Excel Analytics section, find the monthly returns in the Monthly Adjusted Prices report for the following firms: Genzyme Corporation, Sony, Cardinal Health, Inc., Black & Decker Corporation, and Kellogg Company. Copy the returns from these five firms into a single Excel workbook, with the returns for each company properly aligned. Use the full range of available data. Then do the following:

a. Using the Excel functions for average (AVERAGE) and sample standard deviation

(STDEV), calculate the average and the standard deviation of the returns for each of the fi rms.

b. Using Excel’s correlation function (CORREL), construct the correlation matrix for the fi ve stocks based on their monthly returns for the entire period. What are the lowest and the highest individual pairs of correlation coeffi cients? (Alternative: You may use Excel’s Data Analysis Tool to generate the correlation matrix.)

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