The stockmarket is not the economy, as the old investing cliché goes. That is obvious enough to anyone paying attention in America this year. President Donald Trump’s tariff fervour has dented growth, even if not by as much as expected after “Liberation Day”, and yet the stockmarket has soared: the S&P 500 index of large American companies is up by nearly 15% so far this year, comfortably ahead of the historical average.
