Below are charts from the Economist detailing the overall comparative performance of world markets in World equity markets for all of 2008, followed by YTD, the first week of 2009. Overall, the first week of the new year to January 7, was a decent week.
Saudi Arabia turned in the biggest gain on the week with a gain of 10.8%, most likely on hopes that oil prices would recover. Since then, that has not materialized. Denmark turned in a respectable 9.4%, South Korea gained 9.2%, and Brazil was up 8.7%.
Canada turned in a modest gain of 1.5%, while US results were mixed, with the Nasdaq up 1.4%, the S&P 500 up 0.4%, and the Dow a slight loser with a tiny loss of -0.1%.
The week's losers turned out to be Mexico with a loss of -1.2% and the World Bond Index, losing -2.0%.
