Much has been said about the US market last year, which was the world's locomotive. To return to the US trend in greater detail, I refer you to our analysis from last week. In short, the S&P 500 is up 23.3%, marking the second year in a row of over 20% growth. The Nasdaq 100 followed suit, up 24.8%. For its part, the Dow Jones recorded a more modest 12.8% increase, a notable development marked by the integration of Nvidia and The Sherwin-Williams into the index, replacing Intel and Dow Inc.

With average gains of 63% over 2024, Tech's Magnificent Seven (Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla) accounted for more than half of the S&P 500's gains. These seven behemoths were joined by an eighth, Broadcom (+107%), whose performance in 2024 enabled it to pass the 1,100 billion mark in market capitalization, making it a member of the very closed circle of "super-caps". As you can see, Tech continues to outperform other sectors, which are not outdone either.

But let's explore other regions in detail. The FTSE 100, the London Stock Exchange's main index, saw a moderate rise of 5.6%, and was particularly affected by the fall in extractive companies such as BP (-15.6%), Rio Tinto (-19.1%) and Glencore (-25.1%). The Spanish IBEX 35 (+14.7%) and Italian MIB (+12.6%) indices performed very well this year, buoyed by a booming banking sector that is seeking to consolidate. In Spain, Inditex, the parent company of Zara, is up 25.8% in 2024, dominating a ready-to-wear sector where competitors are struggling to compete.

Among the poor performers, only Finland fared worse than Paris in the eurozone, with a 4.2% decline. In the EU zone, Denmark and its OMX Copenhagen 20 index (-7.9%), suffered heavily from the fall of the giant Novo Nordisk (-10.5%) last December, whose weighting in the index is such that a move by the pharmaceutical giant pulls the entire Danish market with it.

The Paris stock market recorded an annual decline of 2.1%, and is barely in the green with dividends reinvested (+0.9%). This performance cannot be attributed solely to the vagaries of politics. Indeed, key sectors with a global reach have suffered significant slowdowns, particularly those highly exposed to the Chinese economy. Among the hardest hit were STMicroelectronics in semiconductors, which fell by a staggering 46.8%; the luxury goods sector, with Kering down 40%, L'Oréal down 24.4% and LVMH down 13.3%; the automotive sector, with Stellantis down 40%; and the oil sector, with TotalEnergies down 13.6%. Companies more closely tied to the French economy, such as BNP Paribas (-5.3%) in banking and Vinci (-12.2%) in concessions, also suffered from the political crisis.

Despite this difficult environment, we can point to a number of players that particularly shone this year. Accor saw its share price rise by 35.5% thanks to a booming hotel sector, Schneider Electric gained 32.5% on the wave of energy efficiency, Safran gained 32.3% on the recovery in aeronautics, and EssilorLuxottica climbed 28.8% on sustained demand in the healthcare sector. With a valuation ratio of 15.5 times anticipated earnings for 2024 according to the Factset consensus, and 14.2 times for 2025, CAC 40 stocks are trading at reasonable multiples, suggesting the possibility of a rebound.

In the rest of Western Europe, the trend seems to be following a generalized craze driven, of course, by the American locomotive. The German DAX index, the CAC 40's counterpart, climbed 18.8%, in stark contrast to the German economic situation. According to Goldman Sachs, the companies making up the index generate only 18% of their revenues in the country. Despite the woes of the German automotive industry - where BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche lost 21.6%, 20.3%, 13.9% and 26.8% respectively - German champion SAP led the performance, up 69.4%, aided by the financial sector, notably Commerzbank (+46.1%), whose takeover by Italy's UniCredit has dominated banking news in recent months. Armaments nugget Rheinmetall also recorded a 114.1% rise in its share price over the year, reflecting the craze surrounding the defense sector.

These good overall performances bring the Euro Stoxx 50 and Stoxx Europe 600 to a very decent 8.28% and 8.78% respectively for the year.

In Asia, The election of Donald Trump and his pro-American agenda have propelled the markets as a whole with Hang Seng, with an annual increase of 17.6%, also ended a four-year losing streak. The Nikkei 225 can point to a very good annualized performance of 19.2%, despite the index's jolt last August following the end of the carry trade. These results were boosted by a depreciating yen, which boosted the country's exports.

The FTSE TWSE Taiwan 50 also continued to surf on the AI craze, which is strongly emphasizing its semiconductor expertise, endorsing growth of 45.4% in 2024. The MSCI Singapore followed suit with an impressive 36.1% rise, a sign of a dynamic economy and an attractive market for international investors. Australia's ASX 200 also recorded positive growth, closing the year with a 7.4% rise, testifying to the resilience of the Australian economy despite the weight of mining in the index. In India, the NIFTY 50 continued its positive trend, recording a rise of 8.8%, marking its ninth consecutive year of growth, underlining the strength and consistency of Indian large caps against a backdrop of post-pandemic recovery and sustained economic reforms.

The Kospi Composite, South Korea's flagship index, was a poor performer, shedding 9.6% over the year. It has to be said that the political environment cast a pall over the equity market when the subsequently deposed Korean president declared martial law in order to regain control of the country.

Finally, the MSCI World closed the year with a notable 17% increase, mainly driven by the performance of the United States, which now accounts for 73.9% of the index, a proportion never achieved before. For its part, the MSCI Emerging Markets ended the year in the green, with growth of 5%.