As we move toward the second half of 2024, expectations of a hard landing have shifted to expectations of a soft landing, and perhaps no landing at all. In the first half of the year, global equities delivered strong positive returns, with economic momentum widening beyond the US to include Europe and China.
However, US equity markets remain highly concentrated, despite some signs of increased breadth. We are also watching small-cap stocks, which have not been this undervalued relative to large caps since the dot-com bubble — and which may be better placed to realize the potential of AI faster than large caps.