Last week, major global stocks finished lower with the exception of the S&P 500 and SMI. The S&P 500 edged up and passed its pre-pandemic record high, thanks to technology stocks hitting new record highs. Global economic data and corporate earnings signaled a recovery, albeit mixed. U.S. and European Markit PMI series, for both manufacturing and service sectors, rose more than expected; however, it is hard to correlate the level of the PMI with the underlying growth rate of the economy….
