Looking Abroad
While domestic U.S. stocks suffered, investors turned their attention overseas to other developed nations. The iShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETF, ticker IXUS, had $1.8 billion of inflows in October, the most in its six-year existence. The fund tracks developed countries across the globe, excluding the United States. Companies from Japan and the U.K. combined make up almost 30 percent of the fund.
That said, investing abroad and snubbing the U.S. didn’t necessarily help either last month. IXUS fell 8.3 percent in October, almost 1 percent more than the MSCI World Index, which includes U.S. equities.
“Certainly international has been less volatile than the U.S. in terms of flows,” said Christian Fromhertz, chief executive officer of Tribeca Trade Group. “But it’s still spotty.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.