European Country ETFs Vs. The U.S.

US stocks crushed the rest of the world for a 15-year period coming out of the Financial Crisis, but we've seen the rest of the world actually outperform the US over the last 18+ months.  A lot of the outperformance for international equities has come since the Tariff Tantrum in early 2025.

Below is a chart showing total returns for the US (SPY) versus the rest of the world (CWI) going back to Election Day 2024.  Through last Friday, CWI was up 50.5% versus a gain of 39% for SPY.

The US outperformed for the first few months of this snapshot, but the rest of the world has held the lead since mid-April 2025.

Below we focus in on European country ETFs and how they've done so far in 2026.  Heading into this week, nearly all of Europe is trading in overbought territory, but there has been plenty of performance disparity.

Against the US (SPY), there's a 50/50 split of outperformers versus underperformers when it comes to year-to-date performance.

The UK (EWU), Sweden (EWD), Switzerland (EWL), France (EWQ), and Germany (EWG) are the underperformers versus SPY, with Germany up the least at +3.9%.

Poland (EPOL), the Netherlands (EWN), Austria (EWO), Spain (EWP), and Italy (EWI) are the outperformers, with Poland, the Netherlands, and Austria the clear leaders, all up roughly 25% YTD.

Poland (EPOL) traded sideways from mid-April through late June, but it has gained 16%+ off the late-June lows to move into first place among the group.