Economy and politics
Economic Power USA. The country has the largest stock market, the two largest stock exchanges (NYSE and NASDAQ) and the most important indices: such as the S&P500 and the Dow Jones Index. Its 330 million inhabitants, spread over 50 states, generated a GDP of $20,933 billion in 2020.
The most important technology companies of today also all originate from the United States of America. Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and many others have their origins in the USA, as Silicon Valley (California) in particular is considered the great starting point of today's technology.
In addition, the country has absolute quality companies in the other sectors as well. Large healthcare and pharmaceutical companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Thermo Fisher or Pfizer are located here. It is also very economical as a financial location for many FinTech companies such as PayPal or Block. In addition, major banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo or Goldman Sachs are located here.
The country is governed democratically and there are only two parties, the more conservative Republicans and the more liberal Democrats. The country stands for a free market, has a solid legal system and offers relatively attractive taxes to employees and companies. Shareholders and start-ups are particularly encouraged, which benefits many investors.
The largest companies
Öl, Getränke und Tabak. Shortly before the dotcom bubble, the largest companies were still represented in all kinds of sectors. General Electric as the largest conglomerate in the world. ExxonMobil as the leading oil production company in the United States or Coca Cola with a large product range of beverages. This multitude of sectors was to become very concentrated in the years that followed.
technology back after two crises. With the dotcom bubble, three tech companies directly reached the top four largest companies in the country. However, this trend was not sustainable until after the financial crisis. In 2009 and 2010, Apple, Microsoft and IBM fought their way back. In the following years until today, no other industry has seen such enormous price increases as the technology sector.
USA dominates technology. Apple is today on the verge of the next milestone: three trillion USD market capitalization. Followed by Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla and Meta. The technology sector is sustainably convincing with high margins, scalable business models and high growth. Each of these companies originates from the United States.
Headquarters of the largest companies
Monopoly Cities. You can see very well from this map where the technology companies have their origin: Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco. Major banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America or Wells Fargo are all located on the East Coast in New York City, the most important city for finance and securities.
Escape from taxes. More and more companies are leaving the US state of California due to the high taxes and regulations. Tesla, Palo Alto or Oracle have already taken the step and moved their headquarters to Austin, Texas.
US indices set the tone for prices around the world
Three indices that determine everyday life on the stock exchange. In the United States, there is the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, all three of which feature the world's largest companies and thus serve as important indicators for many other countries and regions.
Value Index. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is the oldest index and has over 30 different companies from all possible sectors. This is therefore comparable to the Dax in Germany. Many value stocks are represented here, such as 3M, Walmart or UnitedHealth.
The Top 500 in the USA. The S&P500 was established by Standard & Poor's and includes the 500 largest companies in the country by market capitalization. However, there are certain inclusion criteria that must be met for a company to be listed in the S&P 500. Merely having a high market capitalization is not enough.
Technology exchange becomes an index. The Nasdaq 100 Index comprises the 100 largest non-financial stocks listed on the American Nasdaq Stock Exchange. Most of the stocks listed here are technology and fast-growing start-ups, which makes this index much more volatile than the other two. More ads
Price development of the indices
Technology as a growth driver. In this chart of the last few years, it is easy to see that the Nasdaq has clearly outperformed the Dow Jones or the S&P 500. Of course, this is due to the enormous performance of companies like Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet and many others. But many smaller companies working in growth markets such as cyber security, cloud or biotech have also posted decent gains during this time, boosting the Nasdaq.
The US stock market has always been considered the most solid and successful market for investors around the world. Value stocks in health care, industry or consumption have also been able to generate top returns over long periods of time.
The largest and most important trading centers
US stock markets set the pace. There are two major stock exchanges in the USA: the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. The NYSE, or Wall Street, is the largest securities exchange in the world with $27.6 trillion in market capitalization. It is closely followed by Nasdaq with 24.5 trillion USD.
This chart shows very clearly that the stock exchanges around the world do not even come close to the U.S. stock exchanges (measured by trading volume and market capitalization). Asian stock exchanges occupy places three to six. Only then comes the London Stock Exchange, once considered the most important securities exchange in the world.
Öffnungszeiten in den USA
Shorter trading hours. The NYSE and Nasdaq both open and close at exactly the same time. At local time (EST) the Opening Bell rings at 9:30am and the Closing Bell at 4pm. Converted to our time in Germany, this means: from 3:30pm to 10pm.
Top shares in USA
