Investors cheering the S&P 500 Index’s fifth record high in the past two weeks may be missing a more impressive breakout in global equities.

The MSCI ACWI Index—a benchmark that captures stocks in the United States, developed international, and emerging markets—has returned 22% year to date, bringing it to within 1.5% of its first record high since January 2018.

It’s encouraging to see non-U.S. stocks carrying more weight recently, even though the global benchmark has trailed the S&P 500 by about 3 percentage points this year.

The MSCI All-Cap World Ex.-U.S. Index has retu

Stalled business spending is having ripple effects on U.S. company efficiency.

Nonfarm productivity (output per worker) unexpectedly slid 0.3% in the third quarter, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report released November 6. As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, that was productivity’s first quarterly decline since the fourth quarter of 2015.

Third-quarter productivity floundered as employee hours rose 2.4%, while total output climbed 2.1%. The BLS noted that self-employed workers made an “unusually large contribution” to hours worked in last quarter’s productivit

The U.S. services sector has steadily expanded this year, even as trade fears drag down manufacturing.

The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) non-manufacturing (services) Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) climbed to 54.7 in October, its 117th straight month in expansionary territory (above 50). As shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, in recent months ISM’s manufacturing and services PMIs have diverged the most since 2015.

While the growing difference between manufacturing and services data is curious, we see it as a reflection of global weakness in the midst of moderating domestic gr

“An object in motion tends to remain in motion along a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force.” Sir Isaac Newton

What a year it has been for the bulls. The S&P 500 Index recently made four more new highs, and it’s up more than 20% for the year (as of Nov. 4). This leads to the big question: What could happen in the final two months of 2019? Well, we think the bulls might like it.

“A good year tends to see continued strong performance the final two months of the year,” explained LPL Financial Senior Market Strategist Ryan Detrick. “In fact, when the S&P 500 has