Weekly Market Recap – Week Ending January 23, 2026
Geopolitical uncertainty once again took center stage last week, reshaping global capital flows and reinforcing diversification themes that have been quietly building since late 2025. Concerns around trade tensions, tariff threats, and broader geopolitical friction triggered renewed discussion of a potential “Sell America” trade, pushing investors to reassess geographic exposure across equity portfolios. While U.S. markets absorbed modest declines, foreign equities, emerging markets, and precious metals attracted renewed investor interest.
Trade ValuEngine supported portfolio strategies, www.ValuEngineCapital.com
In the below tables we use major ETF’s as a proxy for some major indexes as well as each of the sector groups into which we divide the overall markets. Tracking these over time provides a more defined picture of the US markets than simply tracking major indexes. This is followed by notable individual stock movers over the past month, and finally our full strategy outlook.
Current ValuEngine reports on all covered stocks and ETFs can be viewed HERE
Free Trial: Research on over 5,000 stocks and 700 ETFs HERE
Strategy Note:
Geopolitical tensions surrounding Greenland-related controversies and renewed tariff threats revived discussions around a potential “Sell America” trade. As a result, many investors diversified portfolios away from U.S. equities amid rising uncertainty. U.S. equity funds recorded net outflows of $5.26 billion in the week ending January 21, reversing earlier inflows.
Despite these tensions, European equities experienced a sixth consecutive week of inflows, with $10.22 billion entering the market during the same period. Global emerging market equity funds also posted their fourth straight week of inflows, with ETFs attracting approximately $14 billion year-to-date as of January 22. Gold surged to record highs above $4,750 per troy ounce as investors sought safety amid heightened geopolitical risk.
Among indexed ETFs, SPYM (State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF) and IWM (FTSE Russell 2000 Small Cap ETF) both declined by 0.4%. In contrast, foreign equity benchmarks outperformed, with EFA (iShares MSCI EAFE ETF) rising 0.7% and EEM (iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF) gaining 1.9%. Once again, GLDM (SPDR Gold MiniShares ETF) led all broad equity asset class ETFs we track, advancing 2.0% for the week.
We believe the persistent outperformance of foreign equities and emerging markets represents a meaningful trend. U.S. investors with equity allocations heavily concentrated (90% or more) in domestic stocks may wish to consider foreign equity ETFs as potential diversification opportunities.
www.ValuEngine.com (
www.ValuEngineCapital.com (
BLOG.VALUENGINE.COM for the full history of ValuEngine.com financial blog posts
____________________________________________________________________________
Existing subscribers alert: ValuEngine has launched a completely redesigned and new website! Please check it out at www.ValuEngine.com
Free trials available for new subscribers. Over 4,200 stocks and 600 ETFs covered.
Full Two Week Free Trial HERE
5,000 stocks, 600 ETFs, 16 sector groups, and 140 industries updated on www.ValuEngine.com.
Financial Advisory Services based on ValuEngine research available through www.ValuEngineCapital.com