As the end of the year approaches lets take a look at how the global markets played out. All in all, stocks have had a very good year.
In the US
The Dow Jones and the S&P went up by more than 20 percent and Nasdaq rose more than 30 percent. The blue chip average increased by around 25 percent – the first time in a decade.
In Europe
The London FTSE increased by 10 percent, the German Dax increased by 22 percent.
Greece experienced recovery too, with its market having increased by 27 percent.
Jane Foley, senior foreign exchange strategist at Rabobank, said that the Euro has proved to be very resilient.
She told the BBC:
“The eurozone has moved from crisis to a politically cohesive response and has also created a massive current account surplus, generated largely by Germany. All that has strengthened the euro. At the beginning of the year most analysts thought the dollar/euro rate would be around 1.27. Today it’s closer to 1.37.”
In Japan
The Nikkei increased by an overwhelming 58 percent. Extreme quantitative easing (QE) measures carried out by Shinzō Abe resulted in a weak yen value against the dollar and exporting stocks (such as Mazda and Fuji Industries) boomed. However, if you take a look at the Nikkei increase in dollar terms the increase was much lower than the local currency rise.