US Stocks Need Earnings Boost to Regain Edge Over Global Peers

Six weeks into a torrid rebound, US stocks are still laggards in global equity markets this year. For them to sustain the rally and reclaim their usual spot at the top of the pack, Corporate America’s profit engine needs to rev back up, analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence say.

The S&P 500 Index has underperformed a gauge of 22 developed markets outside of the US since late last year as the pace of US earnings growth relative to the rest of the world narrowed, according to an analysis by BI’s Nathaniel Welnhofer. The last time such a phenomenon occurred was in 2017 when the US stock benchmark’s earnings growth trailed its overseas peers.