U.S. Vs. Rest Of World

Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

Through the first two months of 2026, the rest of the world has crushed the US when it comes to stock market performance.  Using ETFs as a proxy, the US (SPY) is up just 0.6% YTD, while the MSCI All World ex US ETF (CWI) is up 10.86%.  In addition to CWI beating SPY by more than ten percentage points through February, the emerging markets ETF (EEM) is up even more with a YTD gain of 14.38%.

The rest of the world has outperformed the US over the last year as well.  Below is a look at one-year performance for seven ETFs: the US (SPY), the rest of the world (CWI), emerging markets (EEM), Latin America (ILF), the Pacific (VPL), Europe (FEZ), and China (MCHI).

Of these seven, Latin America (ILF) leads the pack with a one-year gain of 59.5%.  The Pacific (VPL) is up the second-most at +47.7%, followed by emerging markets (EEM) at +42.8%.

Europe (FEZ) is beating the US by exactly ten percentage points with a gain of 27.3% versus 17.3% for SPY.  The only ETF of the group that has done worse than the US over the last year is the MSCI China ETF (MCHI).