Weekly Strategy Perspective - American Exceptionalism - Down Not Out

The Through Line: U.S. economic performance has been the envy of the developed world for much of the post-COVID period, pushing the country’s major market indexes to all-time highs as recently as February 19. A mere six weeks later those same yardsticks were down nearly 20%. Oddly, traditional safe havens – including the U.S. dollar and Treasury bonds – declined in tandem. The change in sentiment was dramatic, leaving pundits to question the viability of the American exceptionalism thesis. Using charts, data and a handful of qualitative observations, we put the near-term disruption into a more constructive long-term context.