U.S. investors might not know it, but the Standard & Poor's 500 Index has now outperformed the BRIC nations' equity market for almost 3 1/2 years, Richard Bernstein told attendees today at Financial Advisor and Private Wealth magazines' second annual Innovative Alternative Strategies Conference in Chicago.

Bernstein, the former chief market strategist at Merrill Lynch, expressed optimism about the U.S. equity markets, while simultaneously voicing concern about the health of many so-called emerging market economies. He noted that America had the steepest yield curve of any major nation, citing it as a major positive indicator for the U.S. markets and the economy.

In contrast, the nations with the most inverted yield curves were Greece, Ireland, Portugal, India and Brazil, Bernstein said. "Every sentiment survey we see says people think the emerging markets are doing great and the U.S. is going to hell," Bernstein said.

Challenging the conventional wisdom, Bernstein said that he considered U.S. small-cap companies to offer more potential than any other asset class in the next decade. "The projected earnings growth rate of U.S. small-cap companies is 50% higher than that of Chinese companies," he said.