International Stocks are Dominating 

For the past 14 years, the U.S. stock market has been the place to invest.

From 2010 until 2024, the U.S. stock market blew away international stocks.

The S&P 500, which is what’s generally used to measure U.S. stock performance, has been up over 600% from 2010-2024.

International stocks, on the other hand, were only up 135%.

But times are changing.

2025 has been awesome for international stocks.

And they’re blowing away their U.S. peers.

Since the start of the year, international stocks are performing a whole 10 percentage points better than U.S. stocks.

Is the era of U.S. dominance over in the stock market?

It’s not so simple.

One of the leading causes for the international markets doing so well is exchange rates.

The U.S. dollar has had one of its worst years so far in 2025.

International stock performance drops to just an 11% gain measured in euros rather than U.S. dollars.

Why do currencies matter?

International stocks trade in their home currency, which can be Canadian dollars, euros, British pounds, Japanese yen, etc.

So when the U.S. dollar loses value to other currencies, international stocks perform even better for U.S. investors.

Why is the U.S. dollar struggling so much?

There are major economic concerns in the United States right now.

Inflation and recession fears, coupled with a frequently changing trade policy, are making investors nervous.

There are also concerns about U.S.government debt, which the current government shutdown is certainly not helping.

Is the U.S. dollar going to recover?

Some really smart people don’t think so.

Morgan Stanley expects the U.S. dollar to decline another 10% by the end of 2026.

What does it mean for us as investors?

We should consider buying up some international stocks.

Here are some great ones… and they all trade on U.S. exchanges!

ASML Holdings (ticker: ASML) is a Dutch semiconductor company providing equipment to major chipmakers.

ASML sells extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines to chipmakers like Intel (ticker: INTC), Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor (ticker: TSM).

These machines allow chipmakers to make better chips.

And with the current AI boom, those chips, and thus ASML’s machines, are in high demand.

Over the past 10 years, ASML has averaged over 20% growth in revenue, earnings, and free cash flow annually.

And ASML’s profit margin of 30% is one of the highest in the entire semiconductor industry.

Toyota Motor Corp (ticker: TM) is the largest car manufacturer in the world.

Based in Japan, Toyota sells over 10 million vehicles every single year.

And its profitability is incredible.

Last year, Toyota made over $30 billion in income.

And Toyota’s current price-to-earnings ratio of 8.6x is one of the lowest in the entire automotive industry.

Shell Inc (ticker: SHEL) is one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world.

Based in Great Britain, Shell made $16 billion in profit last year.

With operations in 90 countries, Shell is truly a global company.

And a price-to-sales of only 0.8x makes Shell one of the cheapest oil and gas companies in the stock market.

What international stocks do you own?