Year to Date Country Returns: U.S. Lags

With global equity markets still in rally mode, below we highlight the year to date performance of the major indices for 83 countries around the world. After nearly every country was down earlier in the year, 62 out of the 83 are now up in 2009. Peru is up the most at 72.92%, while Costa Rica is down the most at -39.94%. And the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries are significantly outperforming the developed G-7 countries. Russia, India, and China rank 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in terms of year to date performance, and Brazil isn't far behind in 10th place.

Canada has been the best performing G-7 country with a gain of 12.62% in 2009, but it ranks 35th out of 83. The rest of the G-7 countries are bunched up in the 0%-5% range, which is closer to the bottom of the list than the top. And the US is the worst of the seven with gains of less than 1%. While the markets here in the states have rallied nicely off of their March lows, most other countries have bounced back even more 2009.

Comments

[Paul Price:]

All those who have been 100% invested in Peru this year raise your hands.

May 20 07:19 AM

[jeandit75:]

...and all of those 100% invested in Costa Rica please do not raise your hands

May 20 07:32 AM

[socrateazz:]

What can you expect? Concider who is making the economic decisions in the US. And concider their logic. Is it based on reality? Or is it based on belief (religion)? The leaders have placed the economy in chains on torture racks and expect the magic dragon to light the fire on the economy. They will get charcoal, not cooked food with their logic. But reality will probably be a few years away yet!

May 20 09:01 AM

[Greyowl:]

It is very ironic to read that.

If you go to Russia or China (my personal experience), the businessmen there would say exactly the opposite, praising US Government expertise and discounting theirs.

The reality is that both, China and Russia, swiftly created TWICE bigger than US (compared to respective GDP) bailout packages and implemented them quicker as their governments do not have functioning opposition.

And their biggest banks did not face questions of nationalization or not - they are already controlled by the state.

FXI and RSX have been the driving engines of my portfolio. But now actually I think to decrease their share and switch to US as their stocks have longer way to go up. That US is lagging may signal buy in this case.

On May 20 09:01 AM socrateazz wrote:

> What can you expect? Concider who is making the economic decisions
> in the US. And concider their logic. Is it based on reality? Or is
> it based on belief (religion)? The leaders have placed the economy
> in chains on torture racks and expect the magic dragon to light the
> fire on the economy. They will get charcoal, not cooked food with
> their logic. But reality will probably be a few years away yet!

May 20 09:23 AM

[football frank:]

Canada leads the G7, If you factor in Russia and go with the G8, then
Canada is 2nd, which is pretty good considering how interconnected
they are with the US. Canada would be alot higher if not for the trade
with the US which has slowed. If you beleave that oil is going to
be higher going forward, especially in ten years, then Canada has the
2nd most oil reserves behind the saudi's. With the Canadian dollar going to rise against the US dollar, Americans could get a nice pop
by investing in some of those great Canadian bank shares, which
have avoided the melt down south of the border.

May 20 08:09 PM