As the US this weekend celebrates its Independence Day, fund managers on this side of the Atlantic are also being sucked into the Yankee fervour and are taking stock of the US equity market.

They may find the celebrations overdone, however. With the US economy still on the mend, the equity market is likely to remain choppy and difficult to navigate for some time. And a number of pessimists subscribe to the theory that, much to the chagrin of Americans, China is likely to be the first market to emerge from the downturn and lead the recovery.