World Markets Weekend Update: The Rally Takes a Pause
Doug Short | Dec 04, 2016 01:16AM ET
Only one of the eight indexes on our world watch list posted a gain over the past week, down from all eight the previous week. Japan's Nikkei was the positive outlier with a modest 0.24% advance. This was the third consecutive week that the Nikkei finished a the top. Germany's DAXK was the biggest loser at -1.74% with the UK's FTSE close behind at -1.61%. The US's S&P 500 finished third from the bottom, down 0.97% from its record close the previous Friday.h3 The Last Four Weeks/h3
The tables below provide a concise overview of performance comparisons over the last four weeks for these eight major indexes. We've also included the average for each week so that we can evaluate the performance of a specific index relative to the overall mean and better understand weekly volatility. The colors for each index name help us visualize the comparative performance over time.
h3 Year-to-Date Performance
/h3
Here is an overlay of the eight illustrating their comparative performance so far in 2016.
Here is a table of the 2016 performance, sorted from high to low, along with the most recent highs for the eight indexes. Four indexes are in the green year-to-date, unchanged from last week. The FTSE remains the top performer with the S&P 500 close behind. China's Shanghai remains in the cellar.
h3 Bear Market Perspective/h3The column chart is sorted by the least to worst declines from previous peaks as of the week's end. Seven of our eight watch list indexes had dropped into bear territory (a 20% decline), the S&P 500 being the sole exception. As of the latest close, two indexes are in the bear zone, unchanged from the previous week.
A Longer Perspective
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. We'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.
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Here is the same visualization, this time starting on October 9, 2007, the closing high for the S&P 500, a date the is 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.
For a longer look at the relative performance, our final chart starts at the turn of the century, again indexing each at 800 for the start date.
Note: We track Germany's DAX index (which includes dividends), for consistency with the other indexes, which do not include dividends.
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