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Many investors are aware that foreign stocks, both in absolute and currency-adjusted terms, have outperformed their U.S. counterparts in recent years.
Over the past 12 months, for instance, the S&P Global 1200 index, which is priced in dollars, has beaten the S&P 500 index by 3.4 percentage points.
But that divergence doesn't tell the whole story. Some U.S. shares and sectors have actually outshone the foreign variety.
Domestic energy shares, in particular, have been star performers. The sector -- which has an equivalent exchange-traded fund, or ETF (AMEX: XLE) -- has gained 5.6 percentage points in comparison to its global equivalent.
The U.S. health care group (AMEX: XLV) has done well, too, scoring a relative gain of 1.71%, while domestic information technology shares (AMEX: XLK) have held their own.
Once again, these data drive home the fact that there's more to stock markets than what happens at the index level.
Michael Panzner is a 25-year veteran of the global stock, bond, and currency markets and the author of Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes and The New Laws of the Stock Market Jungle.
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