The worldwide markets watchlist follows nine leading stock indices representing major economies across the globe. It features the United States’ S&P 500, Canada’s TSX, and England’s FTSE 100. Also covered are Germany’s DAXK, France’s CAC 40, Japan’s Nikkei 225, China’s Shanghai Composite, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, and India’s BSE SENSEX. These indexes serve as barometers for investor sentiment and economic health in their respective regions.
Through September 21, 2026, five of the nine indexes on the watchlist remain in positive territory. Japan’s Nikkei 225 leads with a 29.2% year-to-date gain, followed by Canada’s TSX with a 13.6% gain and the United States’ S&P 500 with a 13.4% gain.
Index Performance
Conversely, India’s BSE SENSEX has struggled the most, down 12.2% for the year, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng has a loss of 2.3%. To provide additional context, a table shows each index’s current value, all-time peak, the date of that peak, and how far it is from that record level.
The comparative performance of world markets since March 9, 2009, is illustrated in a chart, which uses a log-scale vertical axis to provide an excellent visualization of the relative performance. The chart indexes each of the eight to 800 on the March 9th start date.
Historical Context
A similar visualization starts on October 9, 2007, a previous closing high for the S&P 500. This date is also approximately the mid-point of the range of market peaks, which started on June 1st for the CAC 40 and ended on January 8, 2008 for the SENSEX. For a longer look at the relative performance, another chart starts at the turn of the century, again indexing each at 800 for the start date.
Examples of single country ETFs include the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DXJ), WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (HEDJ), KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB), and iShares MSCI Hong Kong ETF (EWH). Note that Germany’s DAXK is tracked as a price-only index, instead of the more familiar DAX index, for consistency with the other indexes.
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