International Stocks Beat U.S. by Up to 42 Points as Global AI Buildout Lifts Profits
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 10
International Stocks Beat U.S. by Up to 42 Points as Global AI Buildout Lifts Profits
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 10
Summary
Emerging-market equities have returned 68% since the start of 2025, versus 45% in Europe, 44% in Japan and 26% for the U.S., making American stocks the laggard in a broad global rally.
Corporate profits have strengthened across major regions as the AI infrastructure boom spreads spending well beyond U.S. tech balance sheets into a global industrial and semiconductor supply chain.
That buildout relies on a cross-border trio—Nvidia chip designs, ASML lithography tools and TSMC manufacturing capacity in Taiwan, Japan, China and the U.S.—rather than on American companies alone.
The performance gap challenges the market narrative of U.S. exceptionalism, especially as Europe has only recently regained its 2007 peak, Japan topped its 1989 high in 2024 and emerging-market indexes have also broken higher.