America First? Not when it comes to stock markets worldwide
US stock market has risen in 2025 and isn't far from its all-time high set last week. But it's climbed less than stock indexes in Mexico City, Paris and Hong Kong.
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 per cent rise through Monday versus 1.7 per cent for Wall Street's benchmark.
The split in performance has many causes, and if it continues, it would mark a sharp reversal following years of US exceptionalism. The US stock market has been the clear winner for so long among global markets in large part because the US economy's growth has been so much stronger and more stable than nearly anywhere else.
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. And the Big Tech stocks that have accounted for more and more of the US stock market as they kept soaring look particularly expensive to some.
Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson said many of his clients in recent weeks have been asking if they should be focusing more outside the United States. 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 US rivals but at a much lower cost.
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