A key global stock index sank 4.5 percent yesterday, officially bringing it into bear-market territory amidst further worries about the Greek debt crisis. The MSCI Index of developed and emerging-market stocks has now joined other benchmark indexes of European and emerging-market stocks that were already considered to be in bear territory.
Like a lot of financial terms, "bear market" gets thrown around a lot casually but does have a technical definition attached to it. A stock market is officially considered a bear when it drops 20 percent off its peak. Though the S&P 500 has been falling pretty hard since July, it's down only about 12 percent from its peak, which means that American stocks are not officially in a bear market.
We're actually one of the few international stock markets that's not a bear right now. There are 24 developed stock markets around the world, and every one of them is officially in bear territory except for markets in Canada, New Zealand, Singapore - and the good ol' U.S. of A.
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