This year’s international markets are doing well mostly because of Korea and Taiwan

If you look at a broad ex-US ETF like VXUS and compare it to a broad US ETF like VTI or VOO, you’ll see that VXUS is outperforming the US market.

But this doesn’t tell the whole story. If we divide VXUS into its component regions, the picture starts to become clearer

|Region|Ticker|ex-US Market Cap Weight|YTD|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|Europe|FLEE|36.0%|11.63%|
|Japan|FLJP|15.4%|21.50%|
|**Taiwan**|**FLTW**|**8.1%**|**74.69%**|
|Canada|FLCA|7.9%|16.43%|
|China|FLCH|7.2%|\-8.61%|
|**South Korea**|**FLKR**|**5.9%**|**87.32%**|
|India|FLIN|4.5%|\-6.92%|
|Australia|FLAU|4.2%|17.05%|
|Latin America|FLLA|2.0%|19.83%|
|**Total ex-US**|**VXUS**|100%|**17.26%**|
|**US**|**VTI**|\-|**14.30%**|

Data from [Stock Analysis](https://stockanalysis.com/etf/compare/vxus-vs-vti-vs-flca-vs-flee-vs-fljp-vs-flin-vs-flch-vs-fltw-vs-flau-vs-flla-vs-flkr/?r=YTD) and [Morningstar](https://www.morningstar.com/etfs/xnas/vxus/portfolio). Click on the Stock Analysis link for a graph and the Morningstar link for portfolio composition information for VXUS.

As we can see, the dominant overperformance from South Korea and Taiwan, whose economies have really benefited from the AI boom, are mainly to blame for the overall international markets outperforming the US. It's true that Japan and Canada outperformed the US, but that is offset by Europe underperforming, plus China and India shrinking.