President Donald Trump campaigned on the idea of making America great again. But the U.S. stock market, gauging by the S&P 500, is actually slipping vs. the rest of the world this year.
The U.S.-focused SPDR S&P 500 Trust returned just 2.68% this year so far. That ranks the benchmark U.S. index behind 123 actively traded global ETFs, says an Investor's Business Daily analysis of data from Morningstar Direct and MarketSurge.
That means the U.S. stock market's year-to-date return is a fraction of Poland, Sweden and Brazil. The iShares MSCI Poland ETF is up 12.4%, iShares MSCI Sweden 9.7% and iShares MSCI Brazil 9.6%.
Granted Trump was only inaugurated in mid-January. But it's surprising to see U.S. stocks slip against so many other nations. And the slippage has occurred following his threats of trade-choking tariffs.
Fallout For U.S. Investors
Seeing foreign stocks pull ahead is a potential risk for U.S. investors. Many built portfolios around highly concentrated U.S. large-cap tech stocks. Many ignored the advice to diversify outside of the U.S.
Meanwhile, just this week, investors were stunned by news China's DeepSeek AI is outpacing many U.S.-based models. That puts a giant hole in many U.S.-focused portfolios.
Now that underweight in foreign stocks doesn't look so good. The broad global ETF, iShares MSCI EAFE, returned 4.6% this year. That easily tops the S&P 500. And Roundhill China Dragons, too, is surging 9.3%.
It's only been a few weeks for Trump 2.0. But the results don't look so great again so far.
Where The S&P 500 Ranks
It's 124th
| Name | Ticker | Market return YTD % |
|---|---|---|
| iShares MSCI Poland | EPOL | 12.36% |
| iShares MSCI Brazil Small-Cap | EWZS | 10.16 |
| iShares MSCI Sweden | EWD | 9.67 |
| iShares MSCI Brazil | EWZ | 9.60 |
| Roundhill China Dragons | DRAG | 9.27 |
| iShares MSCI Germany | EWG | 9.18 |
| iShares Latin America 40 | ILF | 8.08 |
| SPDR® EURO STOXX 50 | FEZ | 8.08 |
| Franklin FTSE Brazil | FLBR | 8.06 |
| iShares MSCI Switzerland | EWL | 7.90 |
| SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust | SPY | 2.68 |
