Wall Street vs. Main Street

The difference has never been greater.

Nasdaq closed at an all-time high this Friday. U.S. consumer sentiment hit its lowest ever recorded. Markets are pricing in an AI-driven future. Yet everyday Americans have never felt worse.

And not just in the US. Looking at another superpower, China, we see that car retail sales plunged -15% YoY in April, the steepest decline since mid-2022, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.

Home appliance and furniture purchases fell at a double-digit pace, while gold, silver, and jewelry sales collapsed -21% YoY. Overall retail sales rose just +0.2% YoY in April, the weakest reading since December 2022, while fixed-asset investment fell -1.6% in the first 4 months of 2026, returning to contraction.

The April data suggest GDP could expand as little as +4.1% YoY in Q2 2026, which would represent a significant miss of Beijing's official growth target of 4.5% to 5%

Source: Katusa Research, CNBoS, Global Markets Investor, Bloomberg