Markets

Visualizing Global Equity Returns So Far in 2025

Published

4 weeks ago

June 20, 2025

Dorothy Neufeld

Graphics/Design:

Sabrina Lam

See this visualization first on the Voronoi app.

Use This Visualization

Visualizing Global Equity Returns So Far in 2025

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Key Takeaways

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index has jumped 19.3% year-to-date as of June 13, fueled by a tech rally.
With 18.1% returns, Germany’s DAX 40 Index is being propelled by armsmakers due to an influx in defense spending.
By comparison, the S&P 500 has gained just 1.6% given trade uncertainty.

U.S. equities continue to see tepid returns in 2025, weighed down by a weak dollar and trade disruptions.

Instead, several global equity markets—from the Hang Seng Index to European stocks—are booming. While policy support in China is driving returns, massive defense spending is contributing to gains across German and Italian indices.

This graphic shows year-to-date global equity returns, based on data from TradingView.

A Closer Look at Global Equity Performance

As of June 13, 2025 the Hang Seng Index has returned 19.3%—the strongest returns across leading global equity markets.

Index	Description	YTD Returns as of June 13 2025
Hang Seng	🇭🇰 Hong Kong / China Large Cap	19.3%
DAX 40	🇩🇪 Germany	18.1%
Milano Italia Borsa	🇮🇹 Italy	15.4%
MSCI Emerging Markets Ex. China	🌍 Emerging Markets Ex. China	10.5%
FTSE 100	🇬🇧 UK	8.3%
STOXX Europe 600	🇪🇺 Europe	7.5%
TSX Composite	🇨🇦 Canada	7.2%
Swiss Market Index	🇨🇭 Switzerland	4.7%
CAC 40	🇫🇷 France	4.1%
Nasdaq-100	🇺🇸 U.S. Tech	3.0%
S&P 500	🇺🇸 U.S. Large Caps	1.6%
SSE Composite	🇨🇳 Mainland China	0.9%
Nikkei 225	🇯🇵 Japan	-4.0%
Russell 2000	🇺🇸 U.S. Small Caps	-5.8%

While mainland China’s market remains sluggish, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index is surging, driven by investor optimism around DeepSeek.

Additionally, retail giant Shein is reportedly considering shifting its IPO from London, while battery maker CATL raised over $4 billion in an IPO in May. With U.S. markets seeing muted returns, the Hang Seng is positioning itself as the world’s top IPO destination in 2025.

Meanwhile, Germany’s DAX 40 Index is up 18.1%, aided by a 500 billion euro infrastructure fund. Adding to this, falling inflation coupled with a strong euro are providing favorable conditions for interest rate cuts. Like Germany, Italy’s major index has seen strong gains of 15.4%.

With year-to-date returns of 7.1%, Canadian equities remain resilient despite the economy’s vulnerability to global trade tensions. This strength is likely due to its defensive sector mix, attractive valuations, and fear fatigue of tariff tensions.

As we can see, U.S. markets have lagged in 2025—though some standout performers have emerged. Palantir leads the S&P 500 with a remarkable 82% return so far, while NRG Energy and Howmet Aerospace have each surged over 50%, driven by momentum in the AI and defense industries.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic from a historical perspective, check out this graphic on the performance of U.S. stocks versus global equities since 1979.