World Markets Watchlist: January 6, 2025 | ETF Trends

Our global markets watchlist tracks eight prominent indexes from economies around the world. The list includes the S&P 500 from the United States, the FTSE 100 from England, the DAXK from Germany, the CAC 40 from France, the Nikkei 225 from Japan, the Shanghai from China, the Hang Seng from Hong Kong, and the BSE SENSEX from India.

YTD Table

Four of the eight indexes on our world watch list have posted gains through January 6, 2025. The U.S.’s S&P 500 is in the top spot with a year to date gain of 1.82%. Germany’s DAXK is in second with a year to date gain of 0.96% while France’s CAC 40 is in third with a year to date gain of 0.70%.

World Indexes YTD

World Indexes and Recent Recessions

Let’s start with a very recent chart with the latest recession. We’ve used February 3, 2020 for our start date (this is the official NBER recession start).

World Indexes since 2020

The chart below illustrates the comparative performance of world markets since March 9, 2009. The start date is arbitrary: The S&P 500, CAC 40 and BSE SENSEX hit their lows on March 9th, the Nikkei 225 on March 10th, the DAXK on March 6th, the FTSE on March 3rd, the Shanghai Composite on November 4, 2008, and the Hang Seng even earlier on October 27, 2008. However, by aligning on the same day and using a log-scale vertical axis, we get an excellent visualization of the relative performance. I’ve indexed each of the eight to 800 on the March 9th start date. The callout in the upper left corner shows the percent change from the start date to the latest weekly close.

World Indexes since March 9 2009

Here is the same visualization, this time starting on October 9, 2007, a previous closing high for the S&P 500. This date is also approximately the mid-point of the range of market peaks, which started on June 1st for the CAC 40 and ended on January 8, 2008 for the SENSEX.

World Indexes since Oct 9 2007

For a longer look at the relative performance, our final chart starts at the turn of the century. Again, it indexes each at 800 for the start date.

World Indexes since 2000


Examples of single-country ETFs:


Note: I track Germany’s DAXK a price-only index, instead of the more familiar DAX index (which includes dividends), for consistency with the other indexes, which do not include dividends.

Originally published at Advisor Perspectives

For more news, information, and strategy, visit the China Insights Channel.