Monday, October 19, 2009

Around the World

So now the Dow Jones average has crossed the 10,000 mark, and is up about 14 percent on the year. That's pretty good, but how do we compare to the rest of the world?

Well, it depends on how you frame the question. The Dow hasn't done nearly as well as some of the other indexes around the globe. The German DAX index is up 19 percent this year, while the Amsterdam AEX index is up 31 percent, and the Shanghai Composite Index is up 63.5 percent.

But most of those indexes had more ground to make up than the Dow did. The Dow is still off 29 percent from its high in October 2007. But the German index is also off 29 percent, the Dutch index is off 43 percent from its high, and the Chinese index is still down 51 percent from its high. So other countries have seen more upside so far in 2009 - because they fell that much further from their peaks.

Who's done the best if you look at both 2009 and the distance from the peak? Probably Chile. The Chile Stock Market is up 45 percent in 2009 - and that's down a mere 1.5 percent from its peak, reached in July 2007.

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