A couple weeks ago I ran a list of the ten hottest global stocks of 2007 (India! India! India!). Now here, courtesy of Joe Quinlan at Bank of America (no link, sorry), are the world’s ten best-performing stock indices (in dollar terms) since the beginning of the decade (century, millennium, whatever):
1. Ukraine PFTS Index
2. Russia RTS Index
3. Peru Lima General Index
4. Slovak Share Index
5. Kuwait SE Index
6. Ljubljana Stock Exchange Index
7. Nigeria SE All-share Index
8. Estonia Tallin SE Index
9. Pakistan Karachi SE Index
10. Qatar Doha Securities Index
Go Lima! Go Karachi! Go Ljubljana! The Nasdaq, in case you were wondering, ranked 50th, the Dow 53rd, and the S&P 500 59th. The only First World index in the top 20 was Vienna’s, at 12th.
Update: Merrill Lynch “U.S. Sector Strategist” Brian Belski just got back from a trip to Europe and writes:
In our 18-years in the business, we have never experienced more disdain surrounding US asset classes as we did on a recent trip to speak with European clients…
With such uniformly negative feelings about US stocks, we have to believe that a major long-term bottom is approaching.