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Calculating the U.S. Share of Global Market Capitalization from WFE Data

Article Quant Q&A · Author: glenviewjeff
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Summary

The document explains how to calculate the U.S. share of global equity market capitalization using the World Federation of Exchanges’ monthly report. For a selected month, add the market capitalization reported for NASDAQ and NYSE, divide by the WFE global total, and convert the ratio to a percentage. Selecting a December report provides the months for that year.

One answer reports a historical result of 34.3% for December 2012, while another reports a nearby figure of 34.16%. The document also includes a qualitative observation that a country’s market-cap share can differ from its GDP share as inflation, market cycles, and the development of equity markets affect valuations. The calculation depends on consistent exchange coverage and the selected reporting period; the reported figure is historical and should not be treated as current.

Key ideas

  • Use a WFE monthly report to obtain exchange and global market capitalization figures.
  • Add the NASDAQ and NYSE values, then divide by the WFE total to estimate the U.S. share.
  • A December report contains the year’s monthly observations.
  • Market capitalization shares can diverge from GDP shares as valuations and market development change.
  • The example percentage is historical and tied to the stated reporting period.

Tags

EquitiesUS marketsStatistics
Full text
# How can I determine U.S. market capitalization percent using WFE data?


# How can I determine U.S. market capitalization percent using WFE data?












It seems that I should be able to readily compute U.S. market capitalization percentage of global capitalization using data reported from this page at the World Federation of Exchanges.

How can I do this?

## Answer by glenviewjeff (score 0, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/10107

Download the Excel report for the year you'd like to analyze. If you choose December, all months of that year will be available for analysis.

Then click on the Market cap sheet. Under the Americas exchanges header, for any month of interest, add the NASDAQ and NYSE values, then divide the sum by the WFE total and multiply by 100.

The most recent data available at the time of this answer was December 2012. At this time, the U.S. markets were responsible for 34.3% of world market capitalization.

Data validated from these two articles: 1, 2

## Answer by Alexander Didenko (score 0)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/10080

Surprisingly, you're right, I've got 34.16%

## Answer by user6500 (score 0)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/10088

The United States GDP as a percentage of world GDP is frequently between ~20% and ~30%.

A country's total market capitalization starts approximately at GDP and then is shifted up or down based upon inflation, bubbles, busts, etc.

Most large countries now have equity markets of some form, so the US's share of market capitalization is trending towards its share of GDP from the time where only a few countries had developed equity markets such as the US, the UK, and the Dutch.

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.