It was a good week to be out of U.S. stocks as broad market indexes here gave up ground. That was in marked contrast to major markets around the world, which posted solid rises. After American stocks smoked foreign equities last year, this was a rare week of role reversal.

In sympathy with overseas equities, the largest U.S. companies—which tend to get a good chunk of their sales from international sources—did better. Small-company stocks, typically more domestically focused, fell sharply. Among them, technology and biotech did especially poorly.

Don’t mistake this for the return of the “risk off” trade, since even the MSCI Emerging Markets index—a beaten-down but riskier set of stocks—rose more than 3% last week. World equities, not including the U.S., were up 1.8%; German stocks rose nearly 3%, Japan was up 1.5%.

On these shores, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped nine points to 1857.62. The Nasdaq Composite index lost 121 points, or 2.8%, to 4155.76. The Russell 2000 small-company index dropped 42 points, or 3.5%, to 1151.81. Only the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained, up 0.1%, 20 points, to 16,323.06.

With the quarter about to end, the S&P 500 is essentially flat, a far cry from the 10% rise in the same year-ago period. The bond market continues to confound. Though many have expected interest rates to rise since the Fed announced the tapering in mid-December, bond prices are higher and rates lower. The long end of the Treasury yield curve has flattened a little bit, suggesting bond investors don’t see much in the way of U.S. economic growth. Maybe that’s why some have put their money to work overseas.  (Barrons Online).