The US stock market out-performed the emeging markets as well as the developed markets, according to one year and year-to-end returns. This implied that investors in the US stock market made the right decision and were probably the world's happiest equity investors.

"Against the US, which has been one of our most favoured markets, EM underperformed by -17.1% (absolute US returns over the last 12 months were +19.5%). Over the last 12 months, EM equities have underperformed DM equities by -15.7%. In absolute terms, EM returned +2.4%, whilst DM returned a much higher +18.1%." stated Priyal Mulji and John-Paul Smith of Deutsche Bank.

The emerging markets delivered poor returns, underperforming by -230% against US equities. On the other hand, US stocks saw a +13.3% YTD absolute returns.

Meanwhile, Japanese Nikkei, while beating the S&P 500 when talking about returns, it has been wildly volatile. Its market is up at 57% from last year and 36% year-to-end.