Markets
Charting the World’s Major Stock Markets on the Same Scale (1990-2019)
Charting the World’s Major Stock Markets
Most investors around the world are familiar with the S&P 500 index.
Not only is it the most widely accepted barometer of U.S. stock market performance, but it’s also been on a 10-year bull run, now sitting at all-time highs near 3,170.
This week, we chart those historical returns, and then use the U.S. benchmark as a backdrop to compare other major stock markets around the world, such as those in Europe, Asia, and Canada.
Putting Them All at Scale
One challenge in comparing global markets directly is that all indices are on arbitrary scales.
To directly compare them, the most natural option would be to transform the data to percentage terms. While that’s all fine and dandy, it’s also a little boring.
To make things more interesting, we’ve collected historical data that goes back nearly 30 years for each index. This was mostly done using Macrotrends, a fantastic resource for historical data. We used November 26th, 1990 as a cut-off date, since that was the earliest data point available for some of the country indices used.
We then transformed all of this data to be on the same scale of the S&P 500, so performance can be directly compared to the common American stock market benchmark.
Comparing Markets Using the S&P 500
Alright, now that we have the same scale for each market, let’s dive into the data:
Country | Benchmark | Current Value (in S&P 500 terms) | Gain since Nov 26, 1990 |
---|---|---|---|
🇺🇸 United States | S&P 500 | 3,168 | +901% |
ðŸ‡ðŸ‡° Hong Kong | Hang Seng Comp. | 2,926 | +824% |
🇩🇪 Germany | DAX 30 | 2,913 | +820% |
🇨🇦 Canada | S&P/TSX Comp. | 1,717 | +444% |
🇫🇷 France | CAC 40 | 1,160 | +268% |
🇬🇧 United Kingdom | FTSE 100 | 1,072 | +238% |
🇯🇵 Japan | Nikkei 225 | 315 | +1% |
Note: Data has been transformed to match the scale of the S&P 500, and is current as of December 13, 2019
If you invested $100 in the U.S. market on November 26, 1990, you’d have over $1,000 today.
Over nearly 30 years, the S&P 500 has increased by 901%, which is the most out any of these major indices. If you invested in the German or Hong Kong markets, you’d have fairly similar results as well — each gained more than 800% over the same time period.
Meanwhile, the markets in Canada, France, and the United Kingdom have all increased, but at a far slower pace:
- In S&P 500 terms, Canada would be sitting at 1,717 — which is where the U.S. market was back in 2013.
- France would be at 1,160, a mark the S&P 500 last hit in 2010.
- The United Kingdom would sit at 1,072, also equivalent to 2010 for the U.S. market.
Finally, in S&P 500 terms, the Japanese stock market would be at a lowly 315 points today — roughly where it started 30 years ago. In other words, if you had invested $100 in Japanese stocks in 1990, you’d have gained just $1 over a period of three decades.
Markets
Will Tesla Lose Its Spot in the Magnificent Seven?
We visualize the recent performance of the Magnificent Seven stocks, uncovering a clear divergence between the group’s top and bottom names.
Will Tesla Lose Its Spot in the Magnificent Seven?
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.
In this graphic, we visualize the year-to-date (YTD) performance of the “Magnificent Seven”, a leading group of U.S. tech stocks that gained prominence in 2023 as the replacement of FAANG stocks.
All figures are as of March 12, 2024, and are listed in the table below.
Rank | Company | YTD Change (%) |
---|---|---|
1 | Nvidia | 90.8 |
2 | Meta | 44.3 |
3 | Amazon | 16.9 |
4 | Microsoft | 12 |
5 | 0.2 | |
6 | Apple | -6.7 |
7 | Tesla | -28.5 |
From these numbers, we can see a clear divergence in performance across the group.
Nvidia and Meta Lead
Nvidia is the main hero of this show, setting new all-time highs seemingly every week. The chipmaker is currently the world’s third most valuable company, with a valuation of around $2.2 trillion. This puts it very close to Apple, which is currently valued at $2.7 trillion.
The second best performer of the Magnificent Seven has been Meta, which recently re-entered the trillion dollar club after falling out of favor in 2022. The company saw a massive one-day gain of $197 billion on Feb 2, 2024.
Apple and Tesla in the Red
Tesla has lost over a quarter of its value YTD as EV hype continues to fizzle out. Other pure play EV stocks like Rivian and Lucid are also down significantly in 2024.
Meanwhile, Apple shares have struggled due to weakening demand for its products in China, as well as the company’s lack of progress in the artificial intelligence (AI) space.
Investors may have also been disappointed to hear that Apple’s electric car project, which started a decade ago, has been scrapped.
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