U.S. stocks have experienced their weakest start relative to global markets in 32 years, underperforming by approximately 15 percentage points year-to-date. The S&P 500 index has declined by 6.1%, while the MSCI World Ex-USA index has risen 8.8%. This marks one of the worst years in U.S. equity market history, with the U.S. market capitalization share dropping from a record 52% to 47% after 15 years of dominance. The decline reflects a loss of manufacturing leadership and a shift of capital flows towards European markets. Despite recent outperformance by non-U.S. stocks, over the past 15 years, the iShares MSCI ACWI ex US ETF (ACWX) has lagged the S&P 500 significantly, with returns of 39% versus 368%, respectively. The average correlation between EAFE/EM markets and the S&P 500 remains high, reducing diversification benefits.