Global Stock Market Improvements Broadly Based, Finally
On the world economic stage, matters have been taking a turn for the better once again. Table 1 shows that for the first time since before the pandemic, all the major stock markets globally registered year-over-year index gains at the end of March.
For much of last year, only the North American indices managed to make headway. Presently, the increases are broadly based. Even the two exchanges with the poorest records, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and London’s FTSE, are up by decent, if not outstanding amounts, +20.2% and +18.4% respectively.
Furthermore, NASDAQ has surrendered leadership status among all indices. The ‘small cap’ Russell 2000 index pulled off the biggest year-over-year jump at the end of this year’s Q1, +92.6%. NASDAQ was in second place, at +72.0%, but third, fourth and fifth spots were claimed by foreign indices: ‘iShares Emerging Markets, Asia’, +59.3%; ‘iShares Emerging Markets, Worldwide’, +56.3%; and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225, +54.2%.
The German DAX 30 has also done well, +51.0% y/y as of March 31st, keeping up with the S&P 500, +53.7%, and the DJI, +50.5%. In March, The German DAX 30 scored the highest month-to-month gain among the 14 indices, +8.9% (see Table 2).
Graph 1 illustrates how the NASDAQ index has flattened out of late, as investor attention has shifted mildly away from high-tech firms towards traditional cyclical winners, and companies that will benefit from the pick-up in world trade that is in its nascent stage.
Not to be overlooked, however, Graph 2 sets out the truly remarkable increases realized by the U.S. major indices since their last major troughs in February 2009. The DJI in the past dozen years has climbed +367%; the S&P 500, +441%; and NASDAQ, +861%.
Table 1
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