Uneven vaccine rollouts and new waves of Covid outbreaks have made the global recovery story more muddled than in the United States, but veteran international investors say the top companies in these markets are well-equipped to weather another round of economic uncertainty.
While the United States, United Kingdom and Israel are at or approaching 50% of their population vaccinated against the virus, other nations are still suffering from a limited supply of shots. Brazil and India, two of the biggest emerging market economies, are still battling deadly surges in cases.
The uncertainty is reflected in the performance of the overall stock markets. The S&P 500 is up close to 13% year to date, while the iShares MSCI EAFE Index ETF (EFA), covering developing markets excluding U.S. and Canada, is up 10.2%, and the iShares MSCI EM ETF (EEM) is up 5.8%.
Pro spoke to investors at international equity funds with long-term track records of success to see how they were approaching the issues.