It's still popular among global fund managers to bet on Apple, Nvidia and the other five Big Tech U.S. stocks that make up the group known as the “Magnificent Seven.” But the recent outperformance for stocks outside the United States may show a “peak in investor conviction of U.S. exceptionalism," Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett wrote in a recent BofA Global Research report.
But the steep divide means many other stock markets now don't look as pricey as Wall Street, where critics say prices for many stocks rose too quickly relative to their companies' admittedly booming profits.
A day later, the Federal Reserve in Washington said it would hold rates steady, and minutes from that meeting indicate U.S. policy makers may not move rates for a while given worries about how President Donald Trump's tariffs and other policies could keep upward pressure on inflation.
The difference in performance has been so stark than an index of stocks from 22 of 23 developed economies around the world, excluding the United States, has trounced the S&P 500: a 7.5% rise through Monday versus 1.7% for Wall Street's benchmark.
That includes tech stocks from China, where an upstart called DeepSeek rocked the artificial-intelligence industry by saying it had developed a large language model that could compete with big U.S. rivals but at a much lower cost.
