Foreign investors double down on U.S. stocks at record levels despite political chaos

While Donald Trump runs the White House again, reigniting his trade war, dropping polarizing ideas like annexing Canada, and poking at just about every ally abroad, non-American investors are doing the one thing nobody expected — they’re throwing record-breaking amounts of money into ￰0￱ ￰1￱ are buying ￰2￱ like it’s the last bus out of ￰3￱ to the Federal Reserve, foreign ownership of ￰4￱ just hit nearly 32% of all ￰5￱ held by non-residents, blowing past a record that had held since ￰6￱ spike came in the second quarter of 2025, right in the middle of Trump’s loudest economic rants and protectionist ￰7￱ global demand for ￰8￱ has dropped and fewer people are flying into the States, the stock market is the one place foreigners aren’t backing away from.

They’ve actually sped ￰9￱ is part of the reason, everyone’s trying to grab a piece of the AI boom that’s fattened share prices of giants like Nvidia, Alphabet, and ￰10￱ while money has been pouring into stocks, the dollar’s been sinking, which could be a sign that some investors are hedging their ￰11￱ buyers flood ￰12￱ while skipping the products Rob Anderson, who tracks sectors at Ned Davis Research, said the trade war may have scared off foreign buyers of U. S. products, but it did nothing to cool their appetite for stocks. “While tariffs have led many foreign consumers to boycott US products, US equities remained in high demand,” Rob ￰13￱ in particular are still putting cash into ￰14￱ even though they’re avoiding American-made ￰15￱ just three months ending June 30, foreigners pushed $290.7 billion into the ￰16￱ ￰17￱ that was just the ￰18￱ Galou, global investment director at Bank of America, said that by July, foreign holdings of ￰19￱ were already on pace to jump by $2.8 trillion this ￰20￱ kind of growth is unheard ￰21￱ the time the data came in, total foreign ownership had ballooned to $18 trillion, which is 30% of the entire $60 trillion ￰22￱ market, the highest level since records began in ￰23￱ said, “International investors are still buying US equities at a very strong pace.” These holdings have climbed not just in dollar value, but in total market share — showing this isn’t just a side ￰24￱ is serious ￰25￱ yet, 2025 hasn’t exactly been a great year for ￰26￱ a pure return basis, the S&P 500 has underperformed major indices in Mexico, Brazil, Canada, China, and Japan, both in local currencies and in dollar ￰27￱ MSCI World Index is up 15% this year and might outdo the S&P for the first time since ￰28￱ you strip the ￰29￱ completely, the MSCI All-Country World Index has done even better — 22% up, compared to 13% on the S&P ￰30￱ obsession and Fed rate cut push investment frenzy Sam Stovall, chief strategist at CFRA, said he was surprised.

“Why would they come here if their own markets are hitting record highs?” he ￰31￱ answer, he figures, is the AI ￰32￱ aren’t buying broadly — they’re targeting big ￰33￱ names. “The tech sector has scored 26 new all time highs this year,” Sam ￰34￱ bet started paying off ￰35￱ bottoming on April 8, ￰36￱ have roared ￰37￱ pushed them higher? The Federal Reserve made its first rate cut in over a year, which sent prices climbing ￰38￱ pointed to EPFR fund flow data, saying international investors kept pumping money into ￰39￱ funds at the fastest pace since March — and they didn’t stop through the third ￰40￱ Jacobsen, economist at Annex Wealth Management, thinks a lot of this has nothing to do with ￰41￱ said many foreigners just don’t want to hold Treasuries anymore, but they still want U.

S. exposure. “A lot of foreign holders of US assets who don’t want to hold Treasuries realize that their complaints are against the government and not against companies,” Brian said. Don’t just read crypto ￰42￱ ￰43￱ to our newsletter.

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