Are lagging US stocks still the best bet? Barclays weighs in in Stock News 23/04/2026 U.S. equities have trailed Europe and Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets year to date, dragged down by weakness in Technology and Financials, but Barclays strategists say the underperformance does not change their constructive view on American stocks. Strategists led by Venu Krishna believe the U.S. remains better positioned than its global peers, citing the country’s “stronger capacity to absorb the energy shock from the Iran conflict and Strait of Hormuz disruption,” while Europe and APAC remain more exposed. Within the U.S., Healthcare and Financials sectors have weighed on returns, while Energy, Materials, and Industrials have benefited from higher commodity prices. Small caps have outperformed large caps, with the small-cap index up 10% on the year. Barclays points to fund flow data as evidence of continued investor confidence in U.S. assets. Equity funds have taken in more than $100 billion of inflows year to date, while emerging market equity funds have seen nearly $40 billion of outflows over the same period. Earnings outlook also bodes well for the U.S. market. earnings per share (EPS) growth is expected to outpace sales growth in the coming quarters, the strategists said, signaling improving operating leverage. Further, full-year 2026 (FY26) EPS revisions in the U.S. are running dramatically ahead of the past decade’s trend, up roughly 9.4% at a point in the year when estimates are typically trimmed by 1.1%, the bank noted. “Consensus expects FY26 EPS growth in the S&P 500 to lead Europe but trail APAC, but this masks a composition effect: US margin expansion, driven largely by Tech, has materially outpaced the rest of the world, with the rest of the index lagging,” the strategists said. Stripping out Tech, S&P earnings growth is near parity with Europe, but significantly below APAC. On the valuation front, strategists said recent declines have eased some of the pressure that had built up in prior years. U.S. equities sit around the 70th percentile of their 10-year valuation history, broadly in line with APAC and below Europe. Sector-wise, Industrials and Communications Services screen as the most stretched relative to the S&P 500, while Big Tech looks significantly cheaper versus its own history, sitting near the 14th percentile. “Taken together with superior margins and greater resilience to energy-driven demand shocks, this valuation backdrop reinforces our view that the U.S. remains better positioned than its global peers, even as near-term performance has lagged,” the strategists wrote. Barclays set a base-case year-end S&P 500 target of 7,650, implying roughly 7% upside from current levels, with a bull case of 8,200 and a bear case of 5,900. Source: Investing.com 2026-04-23 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share