At the beginning of the year, the “sell US” trend gained new momentum with Trump’s renewed threat to take over Greenland. For example, some European fund managers sold off US government securities and reduced their exposure to the US.
Even small investors have acted to distance themselves from US stocks. To what extent this is a reaction to the president's whims and threats is unclear.
One assumption is that people are less willing to support the US. But it could also be because company valuations in the US have been much higher, the Swedish krona has strengthened, and people believed there was more to be gained in other markets, says Felicia Schön, savings economist at Avanza.
Drastic change
In 2024, around 75 percent of Avanza's fund savings were US-heavy and focused on North America, technology and global funds. This changed drastically last year. Savings in global funds fell from 52 percent to 18 percent and US and technology funds were sold off.
Instead, they bought Swedish funds, European funds and fixed-income funds, says Felicia Schön.
The trend has continued. So far this year, technology and North American funds have accounted for 38 and 30 percent of net sales at Avanza, respectively, although interest in global funds has increased slightly again. Over 50 percent of savings go to Swedish funds.
TT's look at how a selection of equity funds have performed over the past year shows that US funds and global funds (which are 65-70 percent weighted towards the US) have risen the most.
The average one-year return for seven popular US index funds was 25.1 percent this week, compared with 24.7 percent for global funds and 15.4 percent for European funds.
The world's largest
Felicia Schön points out that one year is a very short savings perspective and that it is not obvious to talk about winners and losers among savers.
"Swedish funds have also performed strongly. If you have chosen to avoid the US for protest reasons, it is an assessment you have to make regardless of whether you are a winner or a loser in terms of returns," she says.
At the same time, in that case, it is a matter of choosing the world's largest companies, which may entail certain risks.
What you do when you reduce your exposure to a global fund and buy a Swedish index fund or a European index fund instead is that you overexpose yourself to a specific part of the market. You take on a higher risk than the market as a whole.
