International investment may not be that difficult anymore.
Nearly half of this year’s $55 billion in foreign exchange inflows went to funds that focus on companies outside of the US, Mike Akins of ETF Action told CNBC’s “Edge ETF” in Monday.
Of the 47 country-wide ETFs, the US currently ranks 41st – eighth – in terms of year-over-year returns, but there’s still a long way to go until US and international investment come close. even level, the date of incorporation of the partner company said.
“From an attribution standpoint, there’s been a huge exodus into the US,” he said. “We’ve now seen early evidence of that trend starting to change.”
The US has dominated developed and emerging international markets for more than a decade, Akins said, but those days may be behind us.
“A lot of these international markets are better positioned, with a higher allocation to cyclical markets,” he said. “It’s just a natural fit in the broader narrative of unprofitable growth.”
International currency-hedged ETFs like WisdomTree’s European hedge fund (HEDJ) is meant to provide exposure to equity securities globally. The company’s head of global research, Jeremy Schwartz, said in the same interview that Japan is also paying a lot of attention to the value wheel.
“We are seeing a pivot to international, a pivot to value,” he said. “Even some of our baskets of international values are outperforming those of the United States.”
Long-time investors like Warren Buffett also bought international stocks. A few years ago, Buffett bought several Japanese trading companies, doing so on a currency hedging basis, according to Schwartz.
HEDJ has grown by nearly 65% since its launch in 2009.
