Global indices provide important insight into international equity markets. It plays an important role in a tactical asset allocation strategy such as our Tactical Asset Allocation. We track detailed weekly country economic trend movements. We use ETFs that represent each geographic region and present the results here.
Major indices around the globe rebounded in the week ended on 12/3, reversing the declining trend last week, with sentiment reflecting optimism after U.S. economic reports and eased concern over Europe's sovereign debt crisis added to confidence in the global economic recovery.
Top Five Indicators
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Risk appetite was back on improved confidence that European sovereign debt crisis would not impact global economic recovery and propelled the top five countries in our table higher. South Korea (EWY) topped the list with a weekly gain of 7%, even as military tensions escalated in the region following an attack by North Korea on Nov. 23.
Shares in Taiwan (EWT) followed a similar trajectory, rising 6% in the week after the report showed that expansions in factory production accelerated over the past two months. As the outlook for Asian exporters remains solid and the pace of economic expansion will likely be faster than developed nations, the uptrend is expected to continue throughout the rest of this year.
Bottom Five Indicators
The bottom five counties reversed their recent down trend. European equity markets rose with comments from the European Central Bank that the bank would maintain current liquidity measures and leave interest rates unchanged at 1%. The European markets responded positively to signs of ECB bond buying among troubled sovereigns.
Against this favorable backdrop, and with a solid bond auction adding to the upbeat tone, Spain's equity market (EWP) outperformed its peers as its stocks rose more than 6% in the week ended on 12/3.
Despite market speculations that the central bank would further tighten monetary policy, the China 25 index Fund (FXI) rose almost 3% last week.