It’s no great secret that domestic financial markets were more than a little uneven in 2025. While some market sectors and asset classes saw reasonable gains, volatility was a constant factor, due largely to uncertainty over foreign trade policies and concerns about inflation. Ongoing worries over the possibility of an AI bubble loom over the market, and even seasoned investors are looking for calmer seas and safer harbors. But with the majority of U.S. market valuation being held by a relatively small number of tech titans heavily vested in AI, which is still a poorly understood and developing technology, domestic investors aren’t sure where to turn.
That’s left a lot of investors looking at the international markets, specifically international equities and low-cost exchange traded funds, or ETFs, as a safe way to diversify out of the crowded U.S. market and its feared unpredictability. Though international markets are affected in some part by the performance of U.S. stocks, it’s not a 1:1 relationship by any means, and provides some much-needed built-in protection against “the bigger they are, they harder they fall” fears here at home.
