Overseas equities have provided American investors with big returns while their U.S. stock portfolios lagged. But a turnabout may be at handFor years, U.S. stocks looked like they were stuck in the slow lane as international equities zoomed ahead, driven by booming economies overseas. Now, despite a global bear market for equities, there are signs the U.S. might be poised to catch up—insofar as their losses are close to equaling those of their non-U.S. counterparts.
So far, U.S. stocks have narrowly outperformed overseas indexes in 2008. The U.S.'s broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is down 10.4% for the year to date (through Mar. 13), but the benchmark overseas developed market index, the MSCI EAFE, is off 10.5%, and the MSCI emerging market index has fallen 11.7%.
"Over the last few years, we've seen huge outperformance by international," says Alec Young, international equity strategist at Standard & Poor's. "So just the fact that they're neck and neck this year is a big story."
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