Foreign investors held a record $23.2 trillion worth of U.S. equities in April, adding about $2 trillion in a single month as overseas demand for American stocks continued to climb.
Foreign Holdings Hit Fresh Record
The increase more than doubled foreign holdings from levels seen during the 2022 bear market and marked a sharp rise from roughly $7.5 trillion during the 2020 pandemic, according to the data shared by The Kobeissi Letter on X.
Much of this year’s gains have been driven by large-cap technology stocks, with AI-linked companies continuing to attract the biggest share of investor capital.
Technology giants, including Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), have helped propel the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to fresh highs this year, attracting additional overseas capital.
Foreign Investors All-In On US Stocks
Foreign investors now own about 30.5% of the roughly $76 trillion U.S. equity market, The Kobeissi Letter said.
The data showed that foreign investors’ allocation to U.S. equities as a share of their U.S. financial assets has climbed to 63%, the highest level on record and about 10 percentage points above the peak reached during the dot-com bubble in 2000.
In May, China tightened cross-border stock trading rules in an effort to limit domestic investors who were moving record amounts of capital into U.S. and Hong Kong equities.
U.S. Stocks Continue To Outperform
The S&P 500 index has gained 7.29% year-to-date, while the Nasdaq composite index has risen 9.64% so far this year.
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 indexes, are up 7.33% and 15.90%, respectively, this year.
Price Action: QQQ fell 0.42% on Wednesday at $710.62 and gained 1.88% in after-hours trading.
Benzinga edge rankings indicate QQQ has a Momentum score in the 75th percentile, and a positive price trend across short, medium and long term.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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