Quote from frank_london:
The German market (DAX) is by far the largest pure ECB market. The only other one of even mentionable size is the CAC. The German market leads Europe and influences US equities i.e. If the DAX were down 400 pts the DOWwould be down 600+
CAC is also pretty big and Eurostoxx is the main indicator for us markets, much more correlated. Why let the eurostoxx plummet with the s&p and only hold up the dax in such an obvious manner...