We're just 18 days into 2018, but the average country's stock market (in local currency) is already up 3.51% year-to-date based on the 76 indices highlighted in the table below. Sixty-eight of the 76 countries are “in the black” for the year while just 8 are down.

As shown, Nigeria is off to the best start with a gain of 17.27%, followed by Argentina (+11.75%) and Russia (+10.83%).  Italy has been the best G7 country so far, followed by the US and then Japan. Canada and the UK have been the weakest of the G7 with gains of less than 1%.

In terms of declines, Jamaica is down the most, but the drop has been just 2%.