Amid the Covid-19 pandemic that’s still underway as economies struggle to deal with new cases, investors are looking for alternative gains overseas. In addition to unlocking potential gains, investors can also achieve portfolio diversification to complement their existing investments.
Of course, Covid-19 still remains the big question mark.
“We are in the early stages [of trying to] gauge the success of reopening around the world,” said Brian Nick, Nuveen’s chief investment strategist. Nick noted that “points to a frustratingly slow recovery. Our focus at Nuveen is on the balance of the decade, not just the balance of the year.”
For broad-based ETF exposure to international equities, investors can look at the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets Index Fund ETF Shares (VEA ). VEA seeks to track the performance of the FTSE Developed All Cap ex US Index.
The fund employs an indexing investment approach designed to track the performance of the FTSE Developed All Cap ex US Index, a market-capitalization-weighted index that is made up of approximately 3873 common stocks of large-, mid-, and small-cap companies located in Canada and the major markets of Europe and the Pacific region. The adviser attempts to replicate the target index by investing all, or substantially all, of its assets in the stocks that make up the index, holding each stock in approximately the same proportion as its weighting in the index.
Looking overseas could also yield potential dividend opportunities. As such, to take out the guesswork, here are a few other international funds to consider with an emphasis on dividends:
- FlexShares International Quality Dividend Dynamic Index Fund (IQDY ): seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Northern Trust International Quality Dividend Dynamic IndexSM. The index is designed to reflect the performance of a selection of companies that, in aggregate, possess greater financial strength and stability characteristics relative to the Northern Trust International Large Cap Index. The fund will invest at least 80% of its total assets in the securities of the index and in ADRs and GDRs based on the securities in the index.
- FlexShares International Quality Dividend Index Fund (IQDF ): seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Northern Trust International Quality Dividend IndexSM. The index reflects the performance of a selection of companies that, in aggregate, possess greater financial strength and stability characteristics relative to the Northern Trust International Large Cap Index, a float-adjusted market-capitalization weighted index of non-U.S. domiciled large- and mid-capitalization companies. The fund will invest at least 80% of its total assets in the securities of the index and in ADRs and GDRs based on the securities in the index.
- FlexShares International Quality Dividend Defensive Index Fund (IQDE ): seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Northern Trust International Quality Dividend Defensive IndexSM. The underlying index is designed to reflect the performance of a selection of companies that, in aggregate, possess greater financial strength and stability characteristics relative to the Northern Trust International Large Cap Index. The fund will invest at least 80% of its total assets in the securities of the underlying index and in ADRs and GDRs based on the securities in the underlying index.
