3-Month Moving Average of Median Wage Growth, Hourly Data (red line) Annualized Inflation Rate, Consumer Price Index (blue line) January 2017 – March 2024 (Sources: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Stock Market Performance The U.S. stock market has been on a roll. In the past five years, 401ks have done extremely well.
2023 began with more pessimism than optimism for global economies and stock markets. Global inflation was rampant in 2022; as a result, central banks around the world, including the Federal Reserve, began aggressively raising interest rates in an effort to battle inflation through lower economic growth and consumer demand. Stock prices reflect expectations of future corporate profitability, so higher interest rates with reduced economic growth did not bode well for global stock markets. However, despite rapidly increasing interest rates and economic prognostications of weak economic growth at best, the U.S. economy in 2023 remained resilient with moderate economic growth and strong stock market performance. The table below compares indexes for the one year and five-year annualized return for the period ending December 31, 2023 for major stock market indexes around the world. The selected indexes are broad measures of stock market performance in their respective countries. The U.S. S&P 500 is a benchmark index for U.S. large company (large-cap) stocks.
Global Stock Market Performance of Selected Indexes One-Year and Five-Year Returns (annualized) as of December 31, 2023 (Sources: Morningstar, Yahoo! Finance)
Country
Index
5-Yr. Return (annualized)
1-year Return
United States
S&P 500
13.73
24.23 18.41
Mexico Canada
IPC
6.62 7.91 2.82 9.67 9.78
S&P/TSX Composite
8.12 3.78
United Kingdom
FTSE 100
Germany
DAX
20.31 16.52 28.24
France Japan
CAC 40
Nikkei 225
10.83 6.09 3.59
Australia
S&P/ASX200
7.84
SSE
-3.70
China
4
Center for Business and Economic Insight
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