American exceptionalism in markets is starting to feel like a weird dream.
At the end of 2024, this was all any investor could talk about. It was deemed a nailed-on certainty that US stocks would continue and extend their ascent over the rest of the world, fuelled by a new president determined to deliver faster growth and by the country’s dominance in Big Tech.
Five months later, that narrative is in tatters. The main US stocks index, the S&P 500, is up on the year, just, after a wild, retail-driven recovery from a steep decline in April. Meanwhile, European indices have left the US for dust, with gains of 20-odd per cent in Italy and Germany and even more in Poland. Global funds that exclude US stocks are in demand.