What’s more, the Federal Reserve’s policy-tightening has cooled inflation while managing to keep the economy growing at just over 2%. Data Friday reinforced that soft-landing picture, showing a pick up in labor hiring and a slight slowdown in wage growth.
Europe’s stagflation crisis and a property downturn in China are flashing a familiar message: for equity investors, there is no real alternative to the US stock market.
With four months left of 2023, returns on the S&P 500 boast about an eight percentage-point lead over the Stoxx Europe 600. The index is on course for its eighth year of outperformance in the past decade, as the artificial intelligence buzz overshadows economic recession fears and pricey valuations.
