Germany’s DAX Index is down by 10.8% year-to-date. It is one of the worst performers among the major developed world indices.

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Source: Yahoo Finance

Over the past five years also the index has swung between a narrow range as shown in the chart below:

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Source: Yahoo Finance

As Germany is the economic engine of Europe, it can argued that if German equities does not perform well other developed European countries may not as well. In addition, investors interested in European stocks might want to keep an eye on German markets as we head towards the end of the year.