Equity markets have performed relatively well in the first half of the year, but can this performance last?

Because we have high valuations, particularly in the US equity market, and we've got relatively low profit growth and we have an alternative in pretty attractive cash rates or interest rates.

We think that the index prospects remain relatively flat from here.

I'm Allison Nathan and colleague in Goldman Sachs research Peter Oppenheimer,

who's our chief global equity strategist and head of macro research in Europe.

Peter, welcome back to the program.

Thank you so much, Allison. It's great to be here.

So Peter, just to start us off, give us an update on equity performance year to date.

Yes, it's an interesting year so far because it really does depend a little bit on what you're

measuring if you look at most equity markets they've made progress but even in the

US for example the Dow Jones index which is equally weighted and represents the broad economy, is flat.

There's been no change at all. If you look at the S&P, it's up about 13%.

And if you look at the Nasdac, which of course is very heavily focused on technology, it's up about 28%.

Other markets have also done quite well, but it has depended again on what you've been focused on.

The European market in dollar terms is up about 16% so a little bit ahead of the S&P.

Japan, which has been a success story, we've been overweight there, is up about 25% in local currency terms,

but when you convert that back into dollars, it's also about 13%, so similar to the S&P.

So I would say broadly we've had a good year to date, but it is also worth emphasizing

that if you look at the last year, the last 12 months, there's been less

progress. For example, the S&P is pretty much the same level today as it was in the summer of last year.

There was a fallback as investors really worried about rising inflation

and interest rates, and some of that tension and fear

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