The main stock market index of United States, the US500, rose to 6818 points on December 2, 2025, gaining 0.08% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has declined 0.50%, though it remains 12.70% higher than a year ago, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from United States. United States Stock Market Index - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index dropped around ***** points in the four weeks from February 12 to March 11, 2020, but has since recovered and peaked at ********* points as of November 24, 2024. In February 2020 - just prior to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the DJIA index stood at a little over ****** points. U.S. markets suffer as virus spreads The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a turbulent period for stock markets – the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also recorded dramatic drops. At the start of February, some analysts remained optimistic that the outbreak would ease. However, the increased spread of the virus started to hit investor confidence, prompting a record plunge in the stock markets. The Dow dropped by more than ***** points in the week from February 21 to February 28, which was a fall of **** percent – its worst percentage loss in a week since October 2008. Stock markets offer valuable economic insights The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a stock market index that monitors the share prices of the 30 largest companies in the United States. By studying the performance of the listed companies, analysts can gauge the strength of the domestic economy. If investors are confident in a company’s future, they will buy its stocks. The uncertainty of the coronavirus sparked fears of an economic crisis, and many traders decided that investment during the pandemic was too risky.

The value of the DJIA index amounted to ****** at the end of June 2025, up from ********* at the end of March 2020. Global panic about the coronavirus epidemic caused the drop in March 2020, which was the worst drop since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Dow Jones Industrial Average index – additional information The Dow Jones Industrial Average index is a price-weighted average of 30 of the largest American publicly traded companies on New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and includes companies like Goldman Sachs, IBM and Walt Disney. This index is considered to be a barometer of the state of the American economy. DJIA index was created in 1986 by Charles Dow. Along with the NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 indices, it is amongst the most well-known and used stock indexes in the world. The year that the 2018 financial crisis unfolded was one of the worst years of the Dow. It was also in 2008 that some of the largest ever recorded losses of the Dow Jones Index based on single-day points were registered. On September 29, 2008, for instance, the Dow had a loss of ****** points, one of the largest single-day losses of all times. The best years in the history of the index still are 1915, when the index value increased by ***** percent in one year, and 1933, year when the index registered a growth of ***** percent.

Actual value and historical data chart for United States Stock Market Return Percent Year On Year

View data of the S&P 500, an index of the stocks of 500 leading companies in the US economy, which provides a gauge of the U.S. equity market.

United Kingdom's main stock market index, the GB100, fell to 9690 points on December 2, 2025, losing 0.13% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has declined 0.12%, though it remains 15.91% higher than a year ago, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from United Kingdom. United Kingdom Stock Market Index (GB100) - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

Stock market return (%, year-on-year) in Saudi Arabia was reported at 36.72 % in 2021, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Saudi Arabia - Stock market return (%, year-on-year) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on November of 2025.

Ireland: Stock market return, percent: The latest value from 2021 is 28.22 percent, an increase from 1.45 percent in 2020. In comparison, the world average is 32.21 percent, based on data from 87 countries. Historically, the average for Ireland from 1987 to 2021 is 11.26 percent. The minimum value, -44.57 percent, was reached in 2009 while the maximum of 138.07 percent was recorded in 1987.

Portugal: Stock market return, percent: The latest value from 2021 is 21.5 percent, an increase from 2.24 percent in 2020. In comparison, the world average is 32.21 percent, based on data from 87 countries. Historically, the average for Portugal from 1989 to 2021 is 6.16 percent. The minimum value, -29.91 percent, was reached in 1989 while the maximum of 58.29 percent was recorded in 1998.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a stock market index used to analyze trends in the stock market. While many economists prefer to use other, market-weighted indices (the DJIA is price-weighted) as they are perceived to be more representative of the overall market, the Dow Jones remains one of the most commonly-used indices today, and its longevity allows for historical events and long-term trends to be analyzed over extended periods of time. Average changes in yearly closing prices, for example, shows how markets developed year on year. Figures were more sporadic in early years, but the impact of major events can be observed throughout. For example, the occasions where a decrease of more than 25 percent was observed each coincided with a major recession; these include the Post-WWI Recession in 1920, the Great Depression in 1929, the Recession of 1937-38, the 1973-75 Recession, and the Great Recession in 2008.

View monthly updates and historical trends for S&P 500 Monthly Return. from United States. Source: Standard and Poor's. Track economic data with YCharts a…

The Dow Jones Composite Index finished the year 2024 at 13,391.71 points, an increase compared to the previous year. Even with the economic effects of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2021 had the highest point of the index in the past two decades. What is Dow Jones Composite Index? The Dow Jones Composite Index is one of the indices from the Dow Jones index family. It is composed of 65 leading U.S. companies: 30 stocks forming the Dow Jones Industrial Average index, 20 stocks from the Dow Jones Transportation index and 15 stocks from the Dow Jones Utility Average index. Importance of stock indices A stock market index shows an average performance of companies from a given section of the market. It is usually a weighted average, meaning that such factors as price of companies or their market capitalization are taken into consideration when calculating the index value. Stock indices are very useful for the financial market participants, as they instantly show the sentiments prevailing on a given market. They are also commonly used as a benchmark against portfolio performance, showing if a given portfolio has outperformed, or underperformed the market.

Actual value and historical data chart for United Kingdom Stock Market Return Percent Year On Year

The United Arab Emirates: Stock market return, percent: The latest value from 2021 is 45.44 percent, an increase from 24.71 percent in 2020. In comparison, the world average is 32.21 percent, based on data from 87 countries. Historically, the average for the United Arab Emirates from 1996 to 2021 is 9.98 percent. The minimum value, -36.78 percent, was reached in 2003 while the maximum of 112.76 percent was recorded in 1998.

While the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused all major stock market indices to fall sharply in March 2020, both the extent of the decline at this time, and the shape of the subsequent recovery, have varied greatly. For example, on March 15, 2020, major European markets and traditional stocks in the United States had shed around ** percent of their value compared to January *, 2020. However, Asian markets and the NASDAQ Composite Index only shed around ** to ** percent of their value. A similar story can be seen with the post-coronavirus recovery. As of November 14, 2021 the NASDAQ composite index value was around ** percent higher than in January 2020, while most other markets were only between ** and ** percent higher. Why did the NASDAQ recover the quickest? Based in New York City, the NASDAQ is famously considered a proxy for the technology industry as many of the world’s largest technology industries choose to list there. And it just so happens that technology was the sector to perform the best during the coronavirus pandemic. Accordingly, many of the largest companies who benefitted the most from the pandemic such as Amazon, PayPal and Netflix, are listed on the NADSAQ, helping it to recover the fastest of the major stock exchanges worldwide. Which markets suffered the most? The energy sector was the worst hit by the global COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, oil companies share prices suffered large declines over 2020 as demand for oil plummeted while workers found themselves no longer needing to commute, and the tourism industry ground to a halt. In addition, overall share prices in two major stock exchanges – the London Stock Exchange (as represented by the FTSE 100 index) and Hong Kong (as represented by the Hang Seng index) – have notably recovered slower than other major exchanges. However, in both these, the underlying issue behind the slower recovery likely has more to do with political events unrelated to the coronavirus than it does with the pandemic – namely Brexit and general political unrest, respectively.

View monthly updates and historical trends for S&P 500. from United States. Source: Standard and Poor's. Track economic data with YCharts analytics.

Hong Kong: Stock market return, percent: The latest value from 2021 is 7.13 percent, an increase from -8.34 percent in 2020. In comparison, the world average is 32.21 percent, based on data from 87 countries. Historically, the average for Hong Kong from 1984 to 2021 is 11.29 percent. The minimum value, -29.69 percent, was reached in 1998 while the maximum of 62.36 percent was recorded in 1987.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is (DJIA) is possibly the most well-known and commonly used stock index in the United States. It is a price-weighted index that assesses the stock prices of 30 prominent companies, whose combined prices are then divided by a regularly-updated divisor (0.15199 in February 2021), which gives the index value. The companies included are rotated in and out on a regular basis; as of mid-2022, the longest mainstay on the list is Procter & Gamble, which was added in 1932; whereas Amgen, Salesforce, and Honeywell were all added in 2020. As one of the oldest indices for stock market analysis, the impact of major events, recessions, and economic shocks or booms can be tracked and contextualized over longer periods of time.

Due to inflation, unadjusted figures appear to be more sporadic in recent years, however the greatest fluctuations came in the earliest years of the index. In the given period, the greatest decline came in the wake of the Wall Street Crash in 1929; by 1932 average values had fallen to just one fifth of their 1929 average, from roughly 314 to 65.

The average for 2021 based on 87 countries was 32.21 percent. The highest value was in Venezuela: 991.39 percent and the lowest value was in Botswana: -6.38 percent. The indicator is available from 1984 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index is an index of 500 leading publicly traded companies in the United States. In 2021, the index value closed at ******** points, which was the second highest value on record despite the economic effects of the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In 2023, the index values closed at ********, the highest value ever recorded. What is the S&P 500? The S&P 500 was established in 1860 and expanded to its present form of 500 stocks in 1957. It tracks the price of stocks on the major stock exchanges in the United States, distilling their performance down to a single number that investors can use as a snapshot of the economy’s performance at a given moment. This snapshot can be explored further. For example, the index can be examined by industry sector, which gives a more detailed illustration of the economy. Other measures Being a stock market index, the S&P 500 only measures equities performance. In addition to other stock market indices, analysts will look to other indicators such as GDP growth, unemployment rates, and projected inflation. Similarly, since these indicators say something about the economic future, stock market investors will use these indicators to speculate on the stocks in the S&P 500.