Look Beyond the US for Big Gains? Time to Load up on Non-US Stocks

As Camarda has emphasized for some time, stock market returns leadership is shifting to international markets. While the U.S. economy – which has led the world’s recovery since the 2008 meltdown – continues to chug along, the real growth show has shifted overseas, with Europe, China, and especially Japan really roaring ahead. According to a recent Barrons piece, the US stock markets are looking tired, with scant gains since March 1st, and with average non-US markets returning 2017 gains of about 20% compared to the U.S.’s 8%. Latin American, Pacific, and other emerging markets are pushing 2017 gains of nearly 30%. And while U.S. stocks by many measures are sporting frothy valuations, non-U.S. stocks, despite strong recent gains, are still quite cheap in many ways. The short of it is that Camarda is now calling for a strategic allocation to non-U.S. markets for its clients’ stock portfolios. Those mostly in our AIMS™ strategies are already well-diversified internationally, but clients with large allocations to our Viking, Strong Stock, and Columbia portfolios – or those with outside investment accounts concentrated in U.S. large cap stocks, as we have found is very common – should consider converting to AIMS™ or at least shifting a good portion of investment capital to our AIMS™ Offshore portfolio. Please discuss this with your Personal Wealth Advisor soon.