U.S. equities tracking worst year vs. world since 2009

[Financial stock market graph. Selective focus.]
Diego Thomazini/iStock via Getty Images

U.S. equities are on track to record their worst year as compared to the rest of the world since the aftermath of the financial crisis.

The S&P 500 has trailed global equities by nearly 10%, marking the sharpest underperformance since 2009 if the trend holds through year-end.

The U.S. stocks have seen several years of outperformance relative to the rest of the world. The robust performance of the U.S. stock market was driven by megacap technology names, strong corporate results and supportive monetary policy.

However, 2025 has been more dominated by a weak dollar, uncertainty driven by tariff policies and other macroeconomic challenges.

The earlier dominance of the U.S. equities had often reached double-digit margins, showing long periods when Wall Street outpaced Europe, Asia and emerging markets. A few times, the U.S. market has fallen into the negative territory by the end of the year.

Here is a chart from AugurInfinity via Mike Zaccardi post on X:

[S&P chart]
AugurInfinity

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