Analysis: As small-cap stocks lag, Wall Street worries about broad slowdown By Reuters – Investing.com

Analysis: As small-cap stocks lag, Wall Street worries about broad slowdown By Reuters – Investing.com

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A street sign, Wall Street, is seen outside New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York

By David Randall NEW YORK (Reuters) - An historic rally in share prices for smaller U.S. companies has slowed sharply in April after six months of strong gains, leading many investors to worry that the stock market as a whole may have already priced in a strong rebound from the pandemic. "The easy money has been made for small caps and for the market overall," said Doug Foreman, chief investment officer of fund manager Kayne Anderson Rudnick, who expects the broad U.S. market will offer "single-digit returns" for the rest of 2021. "The economic recovery is over in financial markets but not in the real world." Over the last year, the 86.7% gain for the index of small-cap stocks has trounced the 48.8% gain for the large-cap , according to Refinitiv data. But since the start of April, the S&P's 5.2% gain has been nearly double the Russell 2000's gain of about 2.3%, and over the last three months the S&P has outperformed with a gain of 8.5% to 5% for the Russell 2000.