Ferrill Roll, Harding Loevner’s CIO and International Equity portfolio manager, offers his perspectives on the current market environment and the opportunities we see in quality growth international equities.
International Equities have experienced a long period of underperformance compared to US equities. The events of 2022—including rising geopolitical tensions, resurgent inflation, a sharp rise in the dollar, the dynamics within China, and a brutal style rotation—pointed to a riskier world, normally one where we would expect US equity market, as the safe haven for global capital, to outperform. But that was not the case. Instead, international equities outperformed US equities in 2022. Is this a potential indicator of an inflection in the relative performance of international and US equities?
As investors in global markets for more than 33 years, we think international markets are a rich hunting ground for high-quality companies boasting durable competitive advantages, sustainable growth, financial strength, and quality management teams. Moreover, we believe it is best to remain open-minded about sources of potential future returns, even in the face of idiosyncratic risks; history has demonstrated time and again that stocks that may feel “uninvestable” today due to such risks can deliver strong performance tomorrow. ∎