U.S. Share of Global Market Cap at New 20-Year High

This was a time-consuming chart for us to make because we had to compile the market cap data for literally all of the world's stock exchanges and convert them all to U.S. dollars. We have a couple of good resources for this data, but none of them were totally complete or fully accurate. We had to piece together data from dozens of different sources to come up with accurate numbers for every exchange going back 20 years.

As of the close of trading on Friday, the market cap of all U.S. listed stocks on the NYSE and NASDAQ was $53.496 trillion vs. a market cap of $63.937 trillion for the rest of the world and a total global market cap of $117.433 trillion.

U.S. listed stocks on the NYSE and NASDAQ had a market cap at Friday's close equal to 45.55% of the total global market cap, which is a new 20-year high. It is impossible for the U.S. share of global market cap to rise much more from here considering that U.S. GDP is equal to less than 25% of global GDP. The U.S. share of global market cap will almost definitely reverse downward in the immediate short-term future.

Over the last 20 years, the median market cap of U.S. listed stocks on the NYSE and NASDAQ has been equal to 38.50% of the total global market cap.

In July 2011, the market cap of U.S. stocks bottomed at 30.39% of the total global market cap.

Prior to last week, the previous 20-year high market cap of U.S. stocks as a percentage of the total global market cap was 45.39% in August 2004.

Between August 2004 and July 2011, as the U.S. share of global market cap declined from 45.39% down to 30.39%:

Silver gained by 490.76%

iShares MSCI Brazil ETF (EWZ) gained by 314.63%

Gold gained by 295.54%

Copper gained by 249.21%

iShares MSCI Mexico ETF (EWW) gained by 218.28%

iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) gained by 170.85%

HUI Gold Miners Index (HUI) gained by 162.12%

Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) gained by 139.28%

iShares MSCI Malaysia ETF (EWM) gained by 132.92%

iShares MSCI South Africa ETF (EZA) gained by 131.35%

WTI Crude Oil gained by 126.76%

iShares MSCI Singapore ETF (EWS) gained by 119.54%

iShares MSCI Canada ETF (EWC) gained by 116.67%

iShares MSCI Australia ETF (EWA) gained by 86.19%

iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF (EWL) gained by 80.27%

iShares MSCI Sweden ETF (EWD) gained by 77.40%

iShares MSCI Hong Kong ETF (EWH) gained by 71.75%

iShares MSCI Germany ETF (EWG) gained by 71.47%

iShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) gained by 53.47%

The NASDAQ Composite Index gained by 49.96%

iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF (EWT) gained by 42.48%

iShares MSCI Spain ETF (EWP) gained by 39.70%

iShares MSCI Netherlands ETF (EWN) gained by 29.29%

iShares MSCI France ETF (EWQ) gained by 22.79%

iShares MSCI Austria ETF (EWO) gained by 22.73%

The S&P 500 gained by 17.03%

iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) gained by 14.71%

iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) gained by 11.56%

iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF (EWU) gained by 11.22%

iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) gained by 7.31%

iShares MSCI Belgium ETF (EWK) declined by -10.60%

iShares MSCI Italy ETF (EWI) declined by -22.41%

Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) declined by -48.77%

Past performance is not an indicator of future returns. NIA is not an investment advisor and does not provide investment advice. Always do your own research and make your own investment decisions. NIA's President has purchased a position in EWZ. This message is meant for informational and educational purposes only and does not provide investment advice.