Emerging-market stocks are struggling in an intangible world

the year, as commodity prices soared and stockmarkets plunged, it looked as if emerging-market stocks might do something they had managed only once in the past decade: to beat the returns of American ones. Two months on and the hope is gone. A small bounce in rich-world share prices means emerging-market underperformance will probably continue.America’s interest-rate rises—and the expectation of more to come this year—have not helped emerging-market economies, especially those with large import bills and dollar-denominated debts. Over the past decade, though, the performance of the dollar has been mixed and interest rates low. In the same period, the index has returned just 2.9% a year, against 9.5% for rich-world stocks.