Value investors who are looking for a deal should look to international ETFs as global stocks are now trading at their lowest valuations in over two years.
Major indices in Europe, Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Argentina and Canada are all trading in correction territory, or off at least 10% from a recent high, while the U.S. is testing that precipice of after a selloff last week wiped out all of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average’s gains for the year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The laundry list of global concerns has diminished optimism and driven a share of fund managers whom expect the global economy to decelerate over the next year to the highest level since November 2008, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The selling and pessimism have also pushed the forward price-to-earnings ratio of the MSCI All Country World Index, which follows 23 developed and 24 emerging markets, to around 18, its lowest level since early 2016.
With major global markets in a correction and the U.S. equities weakened, more are taking a second look at international opportunities.
“For a while, just a couple of sectors were holding the whole market together,” Anwiti Bahuguna, senior portfolio manager and head of multiasset strategy at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, told the WSJ. “And now we’re finally seeing the beginnings of a rotation.”
For instance, UBS Global Wealth Management’s chief investment officer, Mark Haefele, recommended putting money in global equities, noting diverging central bank policies, with the Fed moving further away from policy makers at the European Central Bank, whom are still holding rates low; the Bank of Japan, which still follows aggressive accommodative measures; and the People’s Bank of China, which cut some reserve requirements to stimulate growth.
“All of these policies are going in different directions, and they’re probably not all going to be winners,” Haefele said. “You don’t want to bet on just one of these central banks getting it right—you want to diversify it.”
Investors who are interested in broad international exposure have a number of ETFs to choose from. For instance, the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US (NYSEArca: VEU), iShares MSCI ACWI ex U.S. ETF (NasdaqGM: ACWX) and SPDR MSCI ACWI ex-US ETF (NYSEArca: CWI) focus on international markets sans U.S. exposure.
Among the global picks, BlackRock is eyeing the emerging markets as an attractive destination. The money manager has issued positive ratings for stocks in the developing markets and Asia, excluding Japan.
Investors can also take on broad exposure to these emerging Asian economies through region-themed ETFs. For instance, the SPDR S&P Emerging Asia Pacific ETF (NYSEArca: GMF) provides broad exposure to emerging economies in the Asian Pacific, and the iShares MSCI All Country Asia ex Japan ETF (NYSEArca: AAXJ) excludes Japanese and Australian stock exposure and tilts toward more emerging economies as well.
Broader emerging market plays include the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: IEMG), Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (NYSEArca: VWO), Schwab Emerging Markets Equity ETF (NYSEArca: SCHE) and WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income Fund (NYSEArca: DEM).
For more information on global markets, visit our global ETFs category.