The Market in Pictures, February 28

Our team looks at a lot of research throughout the day. Here are a handful that we think are contributing to investor activity, from earnings to sentiment to the economy and comparisons of foreign markets to ours. Enjoy!

Brad: The correlation between individual stocks has fallen to extreme levels

Data as of 02.26.2025

Brad: and it’s not just small-caps driving the dispersion of returns, it’s even true across the largest stocks

Data as of 02.26.2025

Dave: The downside for earnings misses has far outweighted the upside for beats

Arch: probably feeding into the growing bearish sentiment amongst individual investors

Data as of 02.27.2025

John Luke: Megacap techs have been popular targets of “overvaluation” calls, but their valuation relative to the market is actually normalizing through strong earnings

Brian: and investors are getting more discriminating when it comes to company profitability

Joseph: with profit margins a primary driver of US equity dominance

Source: Goldman Sachs as of 02.24.2025

Brett: US consumers are feeling anxious about the outlook for jobs

Source: @thestalwart as of 02.25.2025

Joseph: and weak results are showing up in many “soft” surveys, in contrast to stronger data for actual results

Data via @DanGreenhaus

Beckham: and there’s been no sign of such softness in real-world credit spreads

Source: Apollo as of 02.24.2025

John Luke: The US economy has far outperformed its peers through the COVID era and beyond

Data as of January 2025

Dave: which has not only increased earnings but widened valuation gaps between the US and foreign indices

Data as of 02.22.2025

John Luke: For years, the price of gold followed closely along with real yields

Data as of December 2024

John Luke: but in recent years, the price kept rising despite the rise in real yields

Data as of 02.27.2025

JD: Younger buyers are getting squeezed out of the housing market by higher rates and higher prices

Source: Apollo as of 02.20.2025

Beckham: but despite affordability challenges, the overall wealth in housing is still huge and growing

Source: Redfin as of January 2025

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