Global Matters Weekly – All eyes on the US

“Should you be over or underweight the US equity market?” is surely one of the most asked asset allocation questions of the past 5-10 years. Over the 10 years to June end in US dollar terms, the US equity market outperformed the UK, Europe and Japan markets by 255%, 202% and 194%, respectively. There are good reasons for this outperformance. Most recently of course, the technology giants that dominate the US equity index were the chief beneficiaries from lockdowns as we all became dependent on, and some maybe addicted to, their services. However, it really has been a trend since the financial crisis that US companies have delivered sustained stronger earnings growth and better profitability than their developed market peers.