After lagging US equities for years, non-US stocks just had one of their best three-month periods in a long time. Over the three months ending March 8, the Morningstar Developed Markets ex-North America Index beat the Morningstar US Market Index by more than 12 percentage points. It’s the largest gap since the three months ending January 2023 (and before then, July 2002).
Waiting to buy an out-of-favor asset class until performance picks up is a good way to miss the reversal when it happens. The recent surge of international stocks dramatizes an important truth about diversification: You never know when it will pay off, so it’s best to make strategic, long-term allocations to major asset classes like non-US equity, rather than tactical allocations.
Still, if this has reawakened some investors to the benefits of spreading some of their assets abroad, it can be better to add late than never. Here are three choices worth considering.
Canada Life International Equity
London-based manager Tom Murray and three others from subadvisor JPMorgan Asset Management build a portfolio of 70-100 stocks that mix growth and value characteristics based on their five-year expected return targets. Turnover hovers around 30%. Though JPMorgan has only subadvised this strategy since 2021, the team has a longer track record at US-domiciled JPMorgan International Equity, which earns Morningstar Medalist Ratings of Gold or Silver, depending on the share class, as of March 2025.
NBI International Equity
Nadim Rizk of PineStone Asset Management runs this strategy like he does NBI Global Equity. He looks for attractive stocks of 25-35 quality businesses, and his group uses a standard scorecard to assess prospective holdings. It makes for a repeatable and sensible bottom-up approach.
The fund leans toward growth, which has helped its returns. The longer track record resides in the NBI International High Conviction Equity Private Portfolio, which is like the NBI International Equity fund but only available to National Bank Financial clients. That fund’s F-2 share class gained 11.9% over the past five years ending February 2025, beating the Developed Markets ex-North America Index and ranking in the top quartile among category peers.
Sun Life MFS International Value
Ben Stone and Phil Evans of MFS rely on their bottom-up work and the Boston-based firm’s global equity analyst network to unearth downtrodden or underappreciated companies with durable business models. Their roughly 100-stock portfolio often strays from its MSCI EAFE Index benchmark and mixes in small helpings of cash, gold royalty companies, and US stocks, though the managers have pared that stake in recent years as US stocks have rallied.
The fund boasts a great track record. Over the last ten years ending February 2025, the F share class’s 7.9% gain ranked in its category’s top decile, and it did so while capturing just 94% of the Developed Markets ex-North America Index’s losses.
The three subadvised strategies highlighted above all benefit from long-term thinking, a trait that would suit investors looking at the International Equity category. The past three months have been a rare and intense bright spot for stocks outside North America. Even if it were to reverse, we have confidence these funds should hold up well.
This article was generated with the help of automation and reviewed by Morningstar editors. Learn more about Morningstar’s use of automation.
The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar’s editorial policies.