Is the US now a healthier bet for investors?

Evaluating the US economy is a numbers game – and by numbers, read data. There is a lot of it to factor in, and often the figures point in several different directions. Take four key indicators – retail sales, unemployment claims, house building figures and the stockmarket. Sales at retailers climbed 0.4% last month, according to the US Commerce Department figures. However, this was short of the 0.8% gain that was the median estimate of 82 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Excluding the biggest gain at car and parts dealers in seven months, demand was little changed from May. Bette...