Stock Market Gauges: Major Market Index ETFs

At the end of 2006, the market value of the 6,744 stocks was $18 trillion. … The top 500 firms, which closely mirror the S&P 500 Index, constitute 74.6 percent of the market value of all stocks. The top 1,000 firms in market value, which are virtually identical to the Russell 1000 and published by Russell Investment Group, comprise 85.4 percent of the total value of equities. The Russell 2000 contains the next 2,000 largest companies, which adds additional 11.7 percent to the market value of the total index. The Russell 3000, the sum of the Russell 1000 and Russell 2000 indexes, comprises 97.1 percent of all US stocks. The remaining 3,744 stocks constitute 2.9 percent of the value.

Stocks for the Long Run by Jeremy Siegel

Below are charts for the major index ETFs from Australia to the US. There are also charts for the major commodities, such as gold, silver, oil and gas. To give more complete picture of the market health, there are also ETFs representaing large companies (Russell 1000) and bigger number of smaller companies (Russell 2000) as well as ETFs that represent Value and Growth stocks.

Quick look at these charts should give investor pretty good understanding on Mr. Market's mood and what parts of the market are performing better.