Between geopolitical events, tech stocks sliding, and overall uncertainty in the U.S. economy, it was a rough start to the year for the U.S. stock market.
Through late March, the S&P 500 was down 7.5%, and investors had begun leaning more on international stocks
Now, the S&P 500 has posted back-to-back gains. It finished April up 10.4%, May up 5.2%, and started June up 10.5% for the year. The go-to for many investors looking to invest in international stocks was the Vanguard Total International Stock ETF (NASDAQ: VXUS), but with the S&P 500’s current momentum, is VXUS a better or worse buy now than a month ago?
VXUS has one goal aside from performance For most, the main benefit of investing in VXUS is gaining instant exposure to essentially the entire international stock market in a single investment. Its 8,770 holdings cover companies from every non-U.S. region you can think of, so it’s as broad as they come. Although it’s outperforming the S&P 500 year to date — up 13.6% to 11% as of market close on June 2 — it has underperformed the index over the past three months.