The yield on France's benchmark sovereign bond reached the same level as Greece's for the first time in history, marking an unprecedented milestone in a week marked by growing concerns over the future of the government headed by Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

The yield on French 10-year bonds, long considered among the safest in the Eurozone, briefly climbed to 3.03% before retreating. This figure equalled that of Greek bonds, a country that was at the heart of the European sovereign debt crisis.

Investors fear that France will struggle to pass next year's budget, while the far-right Rassemblement National party is threatening to table a motion of censure if its demands are not met. Although French bonds showed signs of recovery after Finance Minister Antoine Armand announced he was willing to make concessions on the 2025 budget, this was hardly enough to make up for months of underperformance.

“France is not Greece,” said Antoine Armand. “France has a far superior economic and demographic power, which fundamentally distinguishes it from Greece.” A subtle lesson of humility...

The matrix below highlights the year-to-date percentage performance of each constituent. The size of the cells is proportional to the market capitalisation of each stock.

The giants of the American economy are real cash machines. Here are their net revenues and year-on-year growth for the last twelve months. These ten companies alone earned $606 billion this year. Will they continue to increase their profits at a similar pace in the future? Note that Berkshire's net income includes unrealised gains from its enormous investment portfolio.

The exceptional performance of the S&P 500 since December 2022 is largely due to the Magnificent 7, whose gigantic market capitalisations and strong growth have dominated the market. Without their contribution, returns would have been much closer to the average, still respectable, but far less remarkable.

With the S&P 500 up around 50% over the past two years, history suggests that the index's gains will be more muted in the future. Returns have most often been in the 0-10% range, following periods when the index gained 40-50% over a two-year period.

What is the world's best-performing stock market in 2024? Argentina, with a gain of over 60%. The table below illustrates the year-to-date performance of the main country equity ETFs.

According to the latest forecasts from the CBO (Congress Budget Office), the U.S. national debt is expected to reach a colossal $57 trillion over the next decade. This would be an increase of $34 trillion, or 148%, since 2020.

This comes as total U.S. federal debt officially surpassed $36,000 billion for the first time in history.

Since the “end” of the debt ceiling crisis in June 2023, total US debt has increased by $4 trillion. In other words, the U.S. has taken on an average of $235 billion in debt per month, or $8 billion per day, since June 2023.