As markets soar, should investors look beyond America?
The country’s stocks are extremely expensive
![Illustration of a bull with stars and stripes bursting off it](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240330_FND001.jpg)
EVERY WEEK, a new high. Little wonder a sense of unease is settling over markets. Some 40% of global fund managers think that artificial-intelligence (AI) stocks—a crucial driver of the rally—are already in a bubble, according to Bank of America’s latest monthly survey. Even Wall Street’s most starry-eyed pundits reckon America’s S&P 500 index of leading shares can eke out only minor gains in the remaining nine months of the year. For some, such nervousness portends a crash. But for everyone, it prompts a question: with stock prices having already risen so much, are there any left that offer good value?
Explore more
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “A red flag”
More from Finance & economics
![Solar panels installed on the roof of a building at Skardu in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20250215_FNP002.jpg)
Cheap solar power is sending electrical grids into a death spiral
Pakistan and South Africa provide a warning for other countries
![People walk at Zaryadye park with the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral in the background in Moscow, Russia.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20250215_FNP502.jpg)
Russian inflation is too high. Does that matter?
In a strong economy, price pressure can endure for a long time
![illustration of a house cut in half diagonally, the lower corner being a bill.](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20250215_FND001.jpg)
Why you should repay your mortgage early
For the first time in decades, the arithmetic suggests settling housing loans
How AI will divide the best from the rest
Optimists hope the technology will be a great equaliser. Instead, it looks likely to widen social divides
The danger of relying on OpenAI’s Deep Research
Economists are in raptures, but they should be careful
Elon Musk is failing to cut American spending
DOGE has so far disrupted everything in government bar the deficit