The Nasdaq-100 is back in the spotlight again. After climbing more than $23,100 so far this year, the index has pushed into uncharted territory, thanks in large part to a powerful rally in AI-linked tech stocks and solid results from the biggest names in the game.
Europe. Not exactly the first name that pops into investors’ minds when they think “market leadership,” is it? For much of the last decade, it’s played the quiet understudy while the US tech scene hogged centre stage. But here in 2025?
This week felt like a tug of war between optimism and caution.
In the US, retail sales surprised to the upside and consumer sentiment held up, giving bulls something to cheer about. But June’s inflation numbers told a different story. Core CPI ticked up to 2.9% YoY, keeping the Fed firmly in wait-and-see mode.
The Nasdaq-100 is back at all-time highs after a late-June tech surge. On July 9, the index climbed to 22,884 as chipmaker Nvidia soared — becoming the first U.S. company to cross the $4 trillion market cap mark amid renewed AI optimism.
Let’s face it — small caps haven’t had it easy. While mega-cap tech stocks were busy driving the S&P 500 to all-time highs, smaller companies were stuck playing second fiddle. Since 2015, the Russell 2000 has delivered less than half the gains of its large-cap counterpart.
