As for the rest of the world, investors are looking to places that are on a different curve of their economic cycle than the U.S., in hopes of catching their acceleration when the home economy begins to contract. European stock markets have continually lagged the U.S. during this bull run, and Saira Malik, head of global equities at Nuveen, thinks Saint-Gobain, a French construction materials conglomerate, has room to grow. With only 13% of its revenue in North America, it’s well insulated from any interest-rate-induced slowdown in the U.S. housing market—something Europe’s real estate industry has no need to worry about at the moment. (Half of Saint-Gobain’s sales come from renovations, not new construction, Malik adds.)
