Results from the last 12 to 18 months don’t just hint at a change; they hit you right in the face with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2025, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index delivered a total return of around 34%, nearly double the S&P 500’s 17.9% gain. But the country-level numbers are where things get genuinely startling. South Korea’s KOSPI surged 76% in 2025, its best annual performance since 1999 and it has not stopped. Entering May 2026, the index has added another 80% year-to-date, crossing the 7,800 mark for the first time in history just this week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zoom out to a 12-month view and the KOSPI has delivered a return of over 157%. Goldman Sachs has a 12-month target of 9,000 on the index<\/a>. According to JPMorgan, South Korean companies will have 300% year-over-year earnings growth in 2026<\/a>, which is the best earnings growth path of any major Asian market. This is why the bank raised its bull-case target to 10,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan’s Nikkei<\/strong> 225 opened at a fresh all-time high of 63,203 on May 11, adding 22% year-to-date in 2026 after gaining 26% in 2025. Since January, Taiwan’s TWSE has gone up more than 19%, thanks mostly to TSMC, which makes the advanced chips that almost all AI systems in the world use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the US side<\/strong>, the S&P 500 is at record highs, but its Shiller CAPE ratio now sits at 41, the second-highest valuation in 155 years of market history. Its forward P\/E is 21.3x, versus 13.1x for the broader MSCI Emerging Markets Index. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That means you are paying 63% more per dollar of earnings to own US stocks than EM stocks right now, and that kind of valuation gap tends to matter a great deal over a 5- to 10-year holding period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here is the part that surprises most people: this is not a commodity boom or a currency story. Artificial intelligence is what is pushing Korea, Taiwan, and Japan up, and it’s also what is pushing Nvidia and Microsoft up. The difference is that the physical infrastructure of the AI revolution, the memory chips and the advanced logic chips that make everything run, is manufactured almost entirely outside the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Samsung and SK Hynix in South Korea<\/strong> produce the high-bandwidth memory that every major AI data centre on the planet depends on. SK Hynix alone was up 60% in a single month earlier this year. TSMC in Taiwan manufactures the chips that power Nvidia, AMD, Apple, and every serious AI accelerator in existence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, South Korea\u2019s KOSPI has emerged as one of the strongest-performing markets driven by the global AI boom, delivering nearly 200.72% 1-year returns and 148.75% 5-year returns, positioning it as one of the key emerging markets benefiting from accelerating AI infrastructure demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These companies are not just indirectly getting money from AI spending; they are the ones that the whole AI industry is built on top of. South Korea’s semiconductor exports jumped 139% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026. The country posted a record current account surplus of $37.33 billion in March alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan has a slightly different story to tell. Its market has been reformed and is now driven by corporate governance. For the first time in a generation, Japanese investors are moving their savings from decades of near-zero-yield savings to stocks, and AI-related chipmakers had some of the best single-stock returns of 2025. Memory chip maker Kioxia surged 536% last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It would be both dishonest and wrong to suggest investors should abandon US markets. The structural benefits are real and will last for a long time. They include strong capital markets, unbeatable AI software, huge profits for businesses, and the world’s reserve currency. <\/p>\n\n\n\n S&P 500 companies posted a record blended net profit margin of 13.4% in the first quarter of 2026. Earnings per share are projected to grow 12% this year. These are genuine numbers backed by genuine businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem is not the quality. The problem is the price. At a Shiller P\/E of 41, a level only seen before at the very peak of the dot-com bubble in 2000, there is very little room for anything to go wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Five stocks drove roughly half the S&P 500’s recent gains, which means the apparent diversification of an index fund is shallower than it looks. The amazing 15\u201320% annual returns of the last ten years are not likely to happen again from such a high starting valuation. This is not because the businesses are bad, but because you are paying so much up front that the math just doesn’t work in your favor like it used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be honest, 2026 doesn’t require a choice between the US and global markets. Instead, it requires a more thoughtful distribution across both, with a focus on where the growth and value are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Korea is the highest-conviction near-term opportunity the data points to, with a semiconductor earnings cycle that is still in its early stages and valuation support that the US market simply cannot offer. Taiwan compounds directly with AI chip demand and has no real alternative manufacturer anywhere in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Japan gives you a developed-market story with genuine corporate reform and a domestic investor base discovering equities for the first time in decades. And India, despite a quieter 2026 start after record foreign outflows pushed ownership to 15-year lows, remains the most compelling long-duration story in any major economy a young population, a growing consumption base, and a structural underweight in global portfolios that sets up a powerful rebound when sentiment shifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the last 15 years, the best way to invest has been to put all of your money into US mega-caps and not look elsewhere. But this strategy is starting to fail. Valuations are stretched, concentration risk is real, and the rest of the world is not static. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The markets generating the best returns right now are not doing so by accident. They are doing so because they sit at the centre of the most important technology buildout of the decade, and because after years of underperformance, they are doing it from reasonable starting prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2026, the best portfolios will have investments in both the US market<\/a><\/strong> and the global market, which includes India, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. These investments should be carefully calibrated and watched as conditions changed. That kind of comprehensive, data-driven approach is exactly what Jarvis Invest<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0is built for. Whether you are building long-term wealth through India’s growth story with Jarvis Portfolio<\/a><\/strong>, protecting your positions with Jarvis Protect<\/a><\/strong>, or finding high-conviction opportunities through Jarvis One Stock<\/a><\/strong>, Jarvis brings institutional-level analysis to every market that matters, all in one place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For HNI and UHNI investors looking to allocate capital across both Indian and global markets, Jarvis Prime<\/a><\/strong> and US Global Markets<\/a><\/strong> provide a more strategic and personalized investing approach backed by AI-led research, market intelligence, and portfolio monitoring designed for evolving global opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because in a year when the opportunity is genuinely global, your investing strategy should be too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jarvisinvest.com\/jarvis-library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-1200x349.png\")
![\"S&P](\"https:\/\/jarvisinvest.com\/jarvis-library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-12-113037-1200x564.png\")
Why Global Markets Are Leading Right Now<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jarvisinvest.com\/jarvis-library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-1.png\")
![\"Why](\"https:\/\/jarvisinvest.com\/jarvis-library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ChatGPT-Image-May-12-2026-01_59_17-PM-1200x400.png\")
<\/a>The US Stock Market Is Not Finished. It Is Just Expensive<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Where Should Your Capital Actually Go in 2026?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jarvisinvest.com\/jarvis-library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Diversify-Capital-Across-Global-Markets-with-a-SEBI-Registered-Investment-Advisor-1200x400.png\")
<\/a>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Frequently Answered Questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Q1. How to invest in US Stocks from India?<\/h3>