Why Investors are Looking Beyond the U.S.

0:00Hannah Erin Lang:LinkedIn is pretty amazing at helping you grow your small business. We cannot stop your new clients from emailing you at 3 a.m. We can help you sell, market, and hire in one place. We cannot help you be in three places at once. And while we can't help you organize your calendar, LinkedIn can help you land more clients so you have a calendar to organize. Grow your small business on LinkedIn. Learn more at linkedin.com slash smallbusiness.

0:31Luke Vargas:The FAA halts flights to and from El Paso, Texas for security reasons. Plus, the Warner drama rolls on as activist Ancora pushes for Paramount's deal over Netflix. And investors look abroad as U.S. stocks underperform the rest of the world.

0:48Hannah Erin Lang:It really seemed like investing in domestic companies was really the only way that U.S. investors could win. And though we haven't seen America give up its lead on other countries across the world, Lots of global indexes are outperforming the S &P 500 this year.

1:02Luke Vargas:It's Wednesday, February 11th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

1:16The U.S.

1:17Luke Vargas:is considering seizing more tankers carrying Iranian oil in a potential tightening of the screws on the regime in Tehran. However, we report that the Trump administration has thus far held off on the move, concerned about provoking a retaliation or triggering a surge in oil prices. Middle East correspondent Dov Lieber said Iran will be the main focus of talks today between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump in Washington as concern grows within Israel that the U.S. and Iran could agree to a nuclear deal that's not in its interests. One of Netanyahu's main fears is that should the Trump administration strike a deal with Iran,

1:53Hannah Erin Lang:It could actually give Iran the sanctions relief it needs to improve its economy. It could give the regime legitimacy and bring it back from the brink just when Israel sees its greatest nemesis down and on the mat. Israel's positions regarding the talks on Iran are different from what we understand to be the opinions of the rest of the region who want to see Iran weakened, but they don't necessarily want to see the United States go to war with Iran, the results of which are a mystery.

2:20Luke Vargas:Trump has threatened to use force against Iran should diplomatic talks fail. The Federal Aviation Administration is halting all flights to and from El Paso, Texas for 10 days for special security reasons. The FAA said the restrictions would apply to commercial, cargo and general aviation and told travelers to contact their airlines for more information. No specific explanation was provided for the restrictions, but an earlier notice cited drone activity over El Paso. The FAA and El Paso International Airport didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, daily life in Cuba is grinding to a halt as a U.S.

2:59Luke Vargas:oil blockade designed to cut the country off from Venezuelan support takes its toll. Cuban authorities have begun furloughing state workers, sending children home from school early, and rationing dwindling fuel supplies, which Journal Aviation reporter Ben Katz said includes putting out a notice saying that aircraft visiting the island can't refuel there.

3:19Hannah Erin Lang:What we've seen since then is airlines cancelling flights to and from the island.

3:23Luke Vargas:Some of the short-haul flights are still flying where an aircraft can carry enough fuel to be able to make it to Cuba and then back.

3:30Hannah Erin Lang:But we're seeing a lot of airlines, especially from Europe and from Canada, rejig their schedules and try and figure out how they can maintain, if at all, their flights. those long-haul flights, especially from Europe, from Canada. Canada is one of the biggest sources of tourism for Cuba. You know, that poses a very big hit on the Cuban economy. We also know that some airlines are sending their aircraft empty just to repatriate some tourists who would like to get off the island. And we've also seen disruption in Cuba itself, tourists being

3:59Luke Vargas:shepherded between different hotels to try and avoid some of the blackouts and the electricity the cuts. Cuba's last oil delivery on January 9th was from Mexico, which has since halted supplies under U.S. pressure. In Canada, nine people have been killed and a further 25 injured in a mass shooting in British Columbia. Part of the shooting happened at a secondary school, and police believe that two additional victims found dead in a house were connected to the same incident. Ken Floyd of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the suspected shooter was a woman wearing a dress.

4:33Hannah Erin Lang:As part of the initial response, officers entered the school to locate the source of the threat. During their search, police located multiple victims. The individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased from what appears to be a self-inflicted injury.

4:47Luke Vargas:The shooting marks the worst mass killing in Canada in more than three years. In Washington, House lawmakers have rejected an attempt by GOP leader Mike Johnson to block challenges to President Trump's tariff policies. Democrats were joined by several Republicans who've criticized Trump's aggressive use of tariffs and their questionable legal underpinning. A series of high-profile votes could now begin as soon as today, including a Democratic challenge to Trump's tariffs on Canada. In the latest twist in the rival takeover bids for Warner Brothers Discovery, activist investor Ancora Holdings says it'll push the Hollywood studio to walk away from the$72 billion deal it signed with Netflix.

5:31Luke Vargas:Ancora has built a roughly$200 million stake in Warner, and yesterday emailed Warner CEO David Zaslav to say it's considering a proxy fight if Warner's board doesn't negotiate the best deal for shareholders to sell to Paramount Skydance instead. Warner has consistently rebuffed Paramount's$78 billion offer, arguing that the Netflix deal has greater value, more secure financing, and a clear path to regulatory approval. Just under 125 million people tuned in to watch Sunday's Super Bowl across Comcast's NBC and Telemundo networks and Peacock streaming service. That is down slightly from last year's record 126 million viewers who watched on Fox and Tubi.

6:13Luke Vargas:This year's viewership peaked at 138 million viewers just ahead of Bad Bunny's halftime show. Shares of toy maker Mattel are plunging more than 30 percent after reporting that a hoped-for holiday sales surge failed to materialize. Mattel is banking its 2026 fortunes on a pivot into entertainment and digital content, with plans to release two movies and expand into mobile gaming. France's Total Energies is trimming its quarterly share buyback as global energy giants contend with weaker oil prices. BP yesterday paused its buyback program. Meanwhile, the European Union has approved Google's$32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity startup Wiz, making it Alphabet's largest ever takeover.

7:00Luke Vargas:The deal was cleared by U.S. antitrust authorities last year, and the European Commission now says the takeover is unlikely to impact competition in the bloc. And it's Jobs Wednesday, with January's delayed U.S. jobs report set for release at 8.30 a.m. Eastern. Stock futures are inching higher ahead of the report, which is expected to show a slight acceleration in hiring and unemployment holding steady at 4.4%. Coming up, Wall Street's hunt for good stock investments goes global as investors shy away from U.S. companies. And Maine's Susan Collins sets up a battle for the ages as the senator announces her run for re-election.

7:39Luke Vargas:That's after the break.

7:43Hannah Erin Lang:When you want your spring break to feel like and your kids pool day to feel like and your hotel bed to feel like and room service to feel like because at Hilton hospitality feels like your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels? It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton for this day.

8:17Luke Vargas:Well, after years of making outsized bets on the largest U.S. companies, Wall Street's hot new trade is to buy everywhere else. Our Daniel Bach spoke to financial markets reporter Hannah Aaron-Lang about what's driving investors to look abroad.

8:32Hannah Erin Lang:So, 2026 is shaping up to be a really big year for international stocks. Lots of global indexes are outperforming the S &P 500 this year. You have Korea's KOSPI up almost 26 % year-to-date, the Nikkei in Japan up 14.5%, even the stocks Europe 600 up nearly 5%. And for context, the S &P 500 is just under 2%. And that hasn't been the case for much of the last decade. The United States lead on the rest of the world when it came to financial markets was just so large. It really seemed like investing in domestic companies was really the only way that U.S. investors could win. And though we haven't seen America give up its lead on other countries across the world, we are seeing investors take a fresh look at international equities.

9:20Luke Vargas:And why are investors putting their money abroad?

9:23Hannah Erin Lang:There's a couple of things driving this. One is the weakening dollar. We've seen the dollar slide roughly 10 percent from its highs in around 2022. So why does a weakening dollar matter in this case? Well, it works by juicing returns on foreign stocks, by boosting the value of those companies' earnings relative to American companies, right? If I'm earning my profit in euros, those are now more valuable relative to the U.S. dollar. But it's not just movements in currencies. There are developments abroad that are boosting the economies of those countries. So examples that I heard my sources cite were defense spending in Europe.

10:04Hannah Erin Lang:Lots of countries there trying to build up their defensive capabilities in light of the shifting geopolitical landscape. Japan's government is also preparing to inject even more stimulus into the economy. And also increasingly U.S. investors are worried about what they call concentration risk. So the U.S. stock market is dominated by just a handful of companies. Many of them closely linked to the artificial intelligence build out. And that's a trade that Wall Street has had some anxieties about in recent weeks. So this theme of diversification more broadly is a big one among investors this year.

10:40Hannah Erin Lang:And international stocks are also a piece of that.

10:42Luke Vargas:Hannah, we've talked a lot about the sell America trade here on the podcast. Is that also a factor?

10:47Hannah Erin Lang:This trend has kind of revved up since last spring when you saw the tariff turmoil that really rattled markets around April of 2025. And you saw in that case global investors dump U.S. stocks. They dumped U.S. treasuries. That broad selling of U.S. assets was called the quote unquote sell America trade. So that phrase has been floating around on Wall Street for the better part of a year now, too. But the money managers that I talked to for this story were quick to tell me that they don't feel like this is sell America part two. This is not a case where America's lead on the rest of the globe will completely disappear.

11:27Hannah Erin Lang:Most of these fund managers still believe that the U.S. will lead global equity markets higher for the next several years, just perhaps by not as wide a margin as we've seen over much of the past decade.

11:39Luke Vargas:That was Journal Markets reporter Hannah Aaron-Lang speaking to our Daniel Bach.

11:48Luke Vargas:And finally, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins is running for re-election, boosting the GOP's chances of holding on to their Senate majority in the midterms. Democrats are hoping to flip the seat blue and said that the 73-year-old Collins should have decided to retire. Maine's 78-year-old Governor Janet Mills is running for the Democratic nomination, but is facing a battle for the ages against 41-year-old progressive Graham Plattner. His candidacy comes amid growing calls for older officeholders to cede the stage to younger faces, which national politics reporter John McCormick told us includes potentially limiting how long lawmakers can serve.

12:26Hannah Erin Lang:The age of federal judges, members of the Senate, and members of the House have all crept higher in recent decades. And it's not that unusual for members of Congress to die on the job as three did in 2025 alone. Rahm Emanuel, a 66-year-old Democrat and Washington veteran, recently called for a mandatory retirement age of 75 for presidents, cabinet officials, members of Congress, and federal judges. The idea of term limits or an age limit is popular among voters. A YouGov poll released last month showed that 73 percent of American adults think there should be a maximum age for the presidency, while 69 percent said that for the House and Senate.

13:09Luke Vargas:And that's it for What's News for this Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer and Daniel Bach. Our supervising producer is Sandra Killhoff, and I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.

13:34Hannah Erin Lang:The Future of Everything is the Wall Street Journal's flagship live event, returning to New York City May 4th through 5th. Be there as CEOs, policymakers, and innovators sit down with our journalists to answer the most pressing questions of the day. From finance, tech, and economic policy to sports, streaming, and style, we're bringing together today's most compelling newsmakers for two days of conversations on what's ahead. Listeners of this podcast can access exclusive discounted rates by visiting wsj.com slash future. That's wsj.com slash future.