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Global Stock Market Improvements Broadly Based, Finally
On the world economic stage, matters have been taking a turn for the better once again. Table 1 shows that for the first time since before the pandemic, all the major stock markets globally registered year-over-year index gains at the end of March.
For much of last year, only the North American indices managed to make headway. Presently, the increases are broadly based. Even the two exchanges with the poorest records, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and London’s FTSE, are up by decent, if not outstanding amounts, +20.2% and +18.4% respectively.
Furthermore, NASDAQ has surrendered leadership status among all indices. The ‘small cap’ Russell 2000 index pulled off the biggest year-over-year jump at the end of this year’s Q1, +92.6%. NASDAQ was in second place, at +72.0%, but third, fourth, and fifth spots were claimed by foreign indices: ‘iShares Emerging Markets, Asia,’ +59.3%; ‘iShares Emerging Markets, Worldwide,’ +56