The Writing on the Wall
Let’s be honest, the party in the US markets has been going on for a very long time, and the drinks are getting expensive. US stocks are trading at valuations that would make a dot-com veteran blush. The price you pay for a slice of an American company is, by historical standards, rather steep. Meanwhile, across the pond in Europe and over in Asia, you can find excellent, world-leading companies trading at far more sensible prices. It’s like choosing between a wildly overpriced flat in central London and a perfectly lovely, larger house in a pleasant suburb. The big money, the pension funds and sovereign wealth funds that think in decades, not days, are noticing this valuation gap. They are quietly diversifying, and it seems to me a perfectly rational thing to do.