For over a decade, American investors have been dining out on a single dish: Big Tech. The “Magnificent Seven” have delivered more sugar highs than a Halloween candy binge. But here's the inconvenient truth: 82 of the top 100 performing stocks in the MSCI All Country World Index over the past decade weren’t American, highlights Nicholas Vardy, editor of The Global Guru.
Read that again. Despite the breathless hype surrounding Silicon Valley, most of the world's best-performing companies have been quietly compounding shareholder wealth outside US borders. And yet, the average investor’s portfolio remains dangerously overweight US equities.
That’s not just recency bias. It’s strategic malpractice. Since early 2022, the Mag 7 have posted a collective return of 62%. Not bad. But what’s flying under the radar? The top seven contributors in the MSCI EAFE Index returned 55% over the same period—with far less volatility.
MSCI EAFE Index (3-Year Chart)
Data by YCharts
Companies like Novo Nordisk AS (NVO), ASML Holding NV (ASML), SAP SE (SAP), and Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) are firing on all cylinders. These aren’t moonshot microcaps — they’re global titans riding secular tailwinds:
- GLP-1 weight-loss drugs
- Global semiconductor demand
- Automation and industrial AI
- Rising interest rates after a decade of suppression
If you’re still allocating capital based on ZIP code rather than fundamentals, you’re already behind.
