The stock market story of 2023? The growing domination of US tech

The big seven firms are weighted as much on global indices as all Japanese, British, French, Canadian and Chinese companies

In the old days, there were the FAANGs, the five big US tech stocks that dominated the investment landscape - Facebook (now Meta), Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet). That picture is now out of date. Say hello instead to what is variously called the Super Seven or the Magnificent Seven - four of the above (the dropout being Netflix) plus Microsoft, Tesla and the chip-maker Nvidia. This group's domination is the stock market story of 2023.

The chart below is one for the ages", says Duncan Lamont, the head of strategic research at the fund manager Schroders. It shows how, even if you invest via one of the broadest and most widely used global" stock market indices, you will end up with a portfolio that is very American and very skewed towards US tech.