While You May Not Have Been Looking...European Stocks Are Outperforming the US and Emerging Markets Have Turned Up

The two major European stock etfs VGK and FEZ have now outpaced the US market performance over the past 12 months and Germany (EWG) which strongly outperformed the US in 2012 is not far behind over that same period .

Below is a chart with SPY (S+P 500) and total US Market (VTI) comparison (colors for labels are the same is on bar chart and the top graph which is growth of $100,000)

Emerging markets are way behind but have turned up of late with EEMV which I have written about outperforming IEMG which I mentioned in the same article as an alternative to VWO has outperformed over the last 12 months.I wrote about adding IEMG and EEMV to portfolios as an alternative to VWO here.

IEMG EEMV, VWO  and VTI below, return and volatility in bar chart below growth of $100,000 in line chart.

I have written about the relative valuations of US and international stocks in my review of the first quarter.