01/21/2011
Market Bits and Bytes
I thought I’d give you a look at just how powerful the global stock market has been since the lows of March 2009. Specifically, for the following six major indexes the closing low was hit between March 2-10, 2009. Returns are as of the close, Jan. 14, 2011.
The Great Rally…
S&P 500 (U.S.)…91.3% [676 – 1293]
Toronto / TSX Comp. …77.9% [7566 – 13464]
London / FTSE 100…70.9% [3512 – 6002]
Frankfurt / DAX…93.0% [3666 – 7075]
Sydney / S&P ASX 200…52.7% [3145 – 4801]
Tokyo / Nikkei 225…48.8% [7054 – 10499]
Source: Yahoo Finance
And let’s look at the major foreign holders of U.S. Treasury securities.
The latest available figures are for Oct. 2010, but I’ve compared the holdings for each country, region or entity to their position back in Oct. 2006.
(in billions of dollars)
China, Mainland….906.8 [392.2…10/06]
Japan……………..877.4 [618.1]
U.K. ……………..477.6 [61.7]
OPEC…………....213.9 [107.2]
Brazil…………….177.6 [46.4]
Hong Kong……....139.2 [50.6]
Carib. Bank Ctrs....133.7 [72.5]
Russia…………....131.6 [7.5]
Taiwan…………...131.2 [60.8]
Canada…………...125.2 [28.9]
Switzerland……....101.3 [36.9]
Source: treasury.gov
Notes:
The above kind of puts China’s growth in perspective. Today, that $906 billion figure equates to about 30% of its total reserves, though it has other U.S. assets on top of this.
The huge jump in the U.K.’s position was a result of Gordon Brown’s vast reform of monetary and fiscal policy, first, when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer (the equivalent to our treasury secretary) for a whopping ten years, and then when he replaced Tony Blair as prime minister in 2007.
The big jump in Russia is simply a result of their oil economy cranking into high gear as crude back in Oct. 2006 was in the $58 to $60 range and production levels there were nowhere near those of today.
Wall Street History will return next week with another look at the U.S. housing industry.
Brian Trumbore
