Investors pour record cash into ‘ex‑US’ equity funds

Global investors are nudging portfolios away from the U.S. even as Wall Street prints fresh highs. Fund‑flow data tracked by EPFR and analyzed by Société Générale show a record month for global equity funds that exclude U.S. stocks. The move looks less like an exodus and more like diversification after a long stretch of U.S. outperformance.

The latest tallies point to over $175 billion in the past month flowing into ex‑U.S. global equity mutual funds and ETFs, versus just over $100 billion into global funds that include American names. Strategists frame it as a portfolio cleanup after 2025’s rebound carried the S&P 500 to repeated records while many investors remained heavily tilted to U.S. megacaps.

Why rebalance now? Currency and concentration are two big reasons. A roughly 10% drop in the U.S. dollar against major peers this year has eaten into returns for non‑dollar investors: the S&P 500’s near‑16% year‑to‑date gain in dollars shrinks to about 3.3% for euro‑based holders after FX. Add record index concentration in the S&P 500 and richer valuations at home, and trimming a U.S. overweight becomes easier to justify.

Europe has been the main winner. BlackRock data show a record ~$71B rushing into European equity ETPs by late September (about $16B at the same point last year), much of it from local investors bringing money back to domestic markets. Client polling suggests roughly a quarter of EMEA investors plan to lift Europe exposure over the next year and a third aim to add emerging markets, while a minority expect to increase U.S. equity allocations.

The U.S. bid hasn’t vanished. September was the biggest month of 2025 for inflows to U.S. equity ETPs, and year‑to‑date demand sits near $431B, not far from last year’s pace. The result is a barbelled stance: investors keep buying the U.S. on earnings strength while also building exposure elsewhere to hedge policy, currency and single‑market risks.

Cross‑border reallocations and a softer dollar can spill into digital‑asset activity. When non‑U.S. risk markets attract more capital, some of that liquidity—and the currency backdrop—often shows up in stablecoin demand, exchange volumes and token prices.