All eight indexes on our world watch list have posted gains for 2017 through November 20. The top performer thus far is Hong Kong's Hang Seng with a gain of 33.0%, followed by India's BSE SENSEX at 25.43%. In third is Tokyo's Nikkei with 16.47%.

The Last Four Weeks

The tables below provide a concise overview of performance comparisons over the last four weeks for these eight major indexes. We've also included the average for each week so that we can evaluate the performance of a specific index relative to the overall mean and better understand weekly volatility. The colors for each index name help us visualize the comparative performance over time.

2017 YTD Performance

Here is an overlay of the eight illustrating their comparative performance thus far in 2017.

All eight indexes on our world watch list have posted gains for 2017 through November 20. The top performer thus far is Hong Kong's Hang Seng with a gain of 33.0%, followed by India's BSE SENSEX at 25.43%. In third is Tokyo's Nikkei with 16.47%. Coming in last is London's FTSE at 2.95%.

Bear Market Perspective

The column chart is sorted by the least to worst declines from previous peaks as of the week's end. All eight watch list indexes had dropped into bear territory (a 20% decline). As of the latest close, no index is in the bear zone.

A Longer Perspective