Wall Street investors are fleeing U.S. stocks in September and moving into foreign banks and gold miners

Wall Street is officially ￰0￱ started with warning signs flashing across every major index, pushing investors straight into foreign banks and gold ￰1￱ is about ￰2￱ ended with the S&P 500 breaching 6,500 , and the Dow Jones notching fresh ￰3￱ that meant nothing to those who’ve been here before. Historically, this month tanks the markets, and nobody’s betting against that ￰4￱ from Dow Jones shows that the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq usually take their worst hit in ￰5￱ investors are bailing on ￰6￱ and heading ￰7￱ to CNBC, money managers are diving deep into international equities in 2025. Demand’s climbing ￰8￱ of the biggest moves came from Lazard Asset Management, whose global portfolios are loading up on European and Asian banks, gold miners, and chipmakers.

They’re backing away from the U. S. market, blaming stretched valuations, dollar weakness, and geopolitical messes, and building new positions through the Lazard International Dynamic Equity ETF, a $422 million fund that launched in May after converting from a mutual ￰9￱ carries a 0.40% expense ratio and currently holds a five-star Morningstar ￰10￱ bets on foreign banks and miners as ￰11￱ gets dumped Paul Moghtader, managing director at Lazard and the head of the firm’s Advantage Team, told CNBC that volatility in 2025 has gotten worse, not better. “Markets are increasingly volatile and risky.

We’re seeing risk injected from many different sources, and an international exposure is getting more attractive relative to ￰12￱ many reasons, including the valuation, more shareholder focus,” Paul ￰13￱ said he breaks every stock down using four categories: valuation, growth, quality, and ￰14￱ even factor in how a company’s beta relates to GDP growth, a macroeconomic layer that Paul said lets them weigh the risk or opportunity of every position inside a real-world ￰15￱ Lazard ETF, trading under the ticker IEQ, now includes stocks like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, BNP Paribas, Novartis, Tencent Holdings, and Samsung ￰16￱ gold miners are also in, thanks to strong signals from Lazard’s in-house screening ￰17￱ firm’s overweight on European banks, particularly BNP, which is the second-largest holding after Taiwan ￰18￱ now holds just over 2% of the entire ￰19￱ pointed to BNP’s AXA Investment Managers acquisition, finalized on June 30, which made BNP the fifth-biggest asset manager in ￰20￱ top bank names in IEQ include Societe Generale, Barclays, Japan Post Bank, and State Bank of ￰21￱ Generale is up a massive 94% this year, helped by strong Q2 earnings and a rebound in retail ￰22￱ is up 34%, and Japan Post Bank has gained 25%.

Lazard’s strategy favors these names for their low valuations and above-average dividend yields, a sharp contrast to overvalued ￰23￱ ETF also includes a smaller position in Canadian gold ￰24￱ 1% of the portfolio is in Barrick Mining, Kinross Gold, and Torex ￰25￱ is up 72% this year, and Kinross has exploded by 125%. Paul said the team sees gold as protection against macro uncertainty, especially in a year like this, where both rates and currencies are ￰26￱ portfolio has been moving away from software ￰27￱ dumped names like AppLovin, Gartner, and Cadence Design Systems in August, citing the rise of ￰28￱ said software development is becoming easier and cheaper with AI tools, making some companies less attractive from a value and growth ￰29￱ response, the firm has picked up shares in Amphenol, Erickson, Western Digital, and NetGear, betting instead on hardware and connectivity ￰30￱ of Lazard’s moves, broader sector shifts are showing similar cracks.

Europe’s banking sector hit its highest level since 2008 at the beginning of ￰31￱ like Commerzbank are up over 100% year-to-date, thanks to strong earnings and renewed deal activity. Meanwhile, media stocks are falling apart. They’ve dropped more than 8% over the last two ￰32￱ concerns are tearing into European names, especially in ￰33￱ posted a 71% fall in pre-tax profit in the first half of the year and slashed its full-year outlook, making it the worst performer in the entire ￰34￱ Difference Wire : the secret tool crypto projects use to get guaranteed media coverage