President Donald Trump’s tariffs are giving international stocks a serious lift and at the same time helping to end the S&P 500 Index’s run of global dominance - at least for now.
International stock markets are on pace to outperform the broad US equities benchmark this year, the first time they’ve done that since 2022, and the first time in a rising market since 2009. Fears that tariffs and trade uncertainty will have an outsized impact on Corporate America’s earnings growth are the primary culprit.
The MSCI World Index excluding the US is clobbering the S&P 500 in 2025, jumping 18% thus far versus a more modest 7.8% gain in the S&P 500. You can see why in the individual performances. Mexico’s key stock market index is up 18% this year, Canada’s is up 12%, Germany’s 21%, Spain’s 26%, Br