I’m proud to be an American.
I’ve been very fortunate to be able to travel to many different countries across several continents over the years.
Don’t think I take that for granted.
Some of my favorite places in the world – such as Kyoto, Mumbai, Kilkenny, Hong Kong and others – are amazing.
But those trips only make me appreciate where I live even more.
Now, as investors, we’re NOT just Americans.
We’re Earthlings.
It’s not just about U.S. stocks.
It’s about stocks as an asset class.
Uptrends Are Everywhere
Look at the iShares Global 100 ETF (IOO) close the month at the highest level in its entire history:
You can see the strength when you go country by country all over the world.
Take Canada, for example.
Canada has no healthcare stocks. Compare that to the U.S., where healthcare is one of the largest weightings in both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500.
Canada has a lot of exposure to natural resources – sectors such as energy and materials. The U.S. does not.
Look at this uptrend for Canada, a country with very little tech exposure:
Speaking of some of my favorite places, Italy just hit new 17 year highs. So did Spain.
Even Greece is at the highest levels in over a decade.
Meanwhile, Ireland just closed at new all-time highs too, finally exceeding those former highs from the Global Financial Crisis:
Despite all the negative sentiment coming from Israel, the stock market there continues to drive higher.
Here’s the Tel Aviv 125 Index hitting new all-time highs again:
You’ve got a lot of software, cybersecurity stocks more specifically, in Israel.
In fact, Israel somehow has a larger weighting in technology than the United States.
We can extend our tour…
Continent by continent, you know what you’ll find?
Stocks are going up.
Look at the Johannesburg Index hitting new all-time highs:
Egypt just did the same.
In Latin America, you just saw Mexico, Brazil, Chile, and Peru all going out for the month of May at new all time highs.
Here’s Peru’s Bolsa de Balores de Lima closing at its highest level ever:
And, in Asia, we’ve been talking about the strength in China, including Hong Kong making new multi-year highs.
Japan, too.
Here’s the WisdomTree Japan Hedged Equity Fund (DXJ), which is priced in local currency, the Japanese yen:
It just closed the month at the highest level ever.
Let’s take a weak yen out of the equation. You’re seeing new all-time highs in the unhedged Japan ETF too.
The iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) is priced in U.S. dollars:
Either way, Japan is doing well. It’s not a forex thing.
It’s a stocks-in-uptrends thing.
Earth’s New Highs
I’ll leave you with this one today.
The MSCI All-Country World Index Ex-U.S. (ACWX) is hitting new all-time highs.
So is the MSCI All-Country World Index (ACWI), which includes the U.S.
It’s not just U.S. stocks that are in a bull market.
It’s stocks on Earth.
Earth is hitting new all-time highs. But the Earthlings just don’t want to believe it
They pretend it’s not happening.
You’d think the Earthlings would be happy to see Earth making new highs.
But we have the data. They are not happy. And we believe everybody is wrong.
My bet is these trends continue.
Stay sharp,
JC Parets, CMT
Founder, TrendLabs