When U.S. Economy Goes Down..

There are alot of investing opportunities outside U.S. In the recent years, alot of portfolio managers are recommending their clients to invest in emerging and other developed markets. The reason being obvious is the concern over things not going well in the U.S. Everyone talks alot about China and India as good bets in the emerging market category.

How does China and India perform when the U.S. economy is lagging ?

I believe not. China and India rely highly on the U.S. economy. With U.S economy and markets performing poorly impacts Chinese hardware and manufacturing exports and Indian software exports.

So who performs well when the U.S. economy is lagging ?

Few developed countries that still do well are: Australia, Ireland, Norway & Sweden. These countries do well because they dont rely too heavily on the U.S.

Other emerging market is Chile. They rely on exporting copper, similar to Brazil. China is a good bet too. Vietnam is also gaining alot of interest from investors. Spain also holds alot of promise.

Rule of thumb: While investing in foreign markets, there is always going to be some surprizes and disappointments. This has to be always taken into consideration beforing investing your money in those markets.
Another good way to get started by investing in foreign markets is buying Exchange Traded Fund (ETFs).
Some of the EFTs i recommend are

iShares MSCI Australia Index Fund EWA

iShares MSCI Sweden Index ETF EWD

Irish Investment Fund Inc. IRL

iShares MSCI Hong Kong Index Fund EWH

iShares MSCI Spain Index Fund EWP

The India Fund Inc. IFN

iShare FTSE China 25 Index FXI