Year 2011: First Semester Produces Mild Stock Market Gains

Today, as 2011’s first semester reaches its end, the world stock market shows a few signs of recovery (as it has certainly fared better than it did during last year), but caution is a must as there is still some financial instability and growth is still at low to mid-single digit levels.

This is the case for all of the major stock exchange indexes around the globe. The Dow Jones industrial average, for example, registered a gain of only 5.9%; the S&P 500 index gained 4% and the NASDAQ composite grew 3.3%.

Certainly, these increases demonstrate that the world economy is rallying after the terrible recession that swept over the entire world last year. However, this year has not been without problems of its own. Unrest in the Middle East, oil price spikes, natural disasters (such as those that greatly affected Japan), and the worsening of Europe’s debt crisis (thanks to Greece’s dire situation) have all played a part in slowing growth.

Surely, this has not been the best semester for the stock markets around the globe, but it has not been the worst one either. The markets have performed well enough so as to generate optimism and confidence in the minds of investors. This will be paramount in once again placing the market in the path of sustained growth and development, so when evaluating the first half of 2011 we could say this: so far, so good.