U.S. equities investors haven’t been able to make much headway in their investments over the last year or so, with the last three months being especially tumultuous, but is that going to change anytime soon? Deutsche Bank strategists say this stretch during which U.S. equities have remained range-bound has been “unusually long” for any growth asset and explain the problems they think have plagued the asset class.

Negative data surprises drag down U.S. equities

Chief Strategist Binky Chadha and team note that U.S. equities have remained range-bound even though growth both in the U.S. and globally has continued. This makes the situation even more interesting, particularly when stacked on top of the fact that they haven’t really moved out of the range since early last year.

Although there are many reasons experts give for why U.S. equities have remained range-bound for so long, the Deutsche Bank team finds the argument for the persistent negative data surprises as especially compelling.

They said that the negative data surprises have stretched on for what has become the longest period ever recorded.

U.S. equities very susceptible to data shocks

And although the data surprises did climb from negative into neutral multiple times over the last 15 months, pushing U.S. stocks to the top of the range, every time they did, a shock roared through the markets, dragging them right back down again. Two examples they give were the shock out of China in August 2015 and a “bout of sharp dollar appreciation” driven by expectations from the European Central Bank in October.

Things have finally begun looking up over the last six weeks though, and Chadha and team question whether U.S. equities will finally be able to break out of the range they’ve been stuck in for roughly a year. They note that the recent rise in stock prices has been in tandem with positive data surprises, and they seem to think that finally the economy may have enough steam to break free.