International stocks seem inexpensive

Article Excerpt

The U.S. equity markets and the U.S. dollar have been star performers for the past decade. However, there are signs that their dominance may be ending. The U.S. economy makes up about 25% of the global economy, while its equity markets represent 56% of the global total. Canada represents another 3% of the global economy and also 3% of the global equity markets. This implies that there are plenty of investment opportunities outside of North America. The Global Competitiveness Report, published by the World Economic Forum, measures 140 economies against 98 indicators, to determine the competitiveness of each country. In 2018, the U.S. topped the rankings, with Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands, Hong Kong, U.K., Sweden, and Denmark rounding out the top 10. Global ETFs feature some top stocks The international ETFs we analyze on pages 71 and 72 include many leading global companies based outside of North America: Nestle (Switzerland, food processing), Novartis (Switzerland, pharmaceuticals), Toyota (Japan, vehicles), and SAP (Germany, business software). In…