Are Foreign Investors Fleeing US Assets? Morgan Stanley Answers

By Vishwanath Tirupattur, global head of Quantitative Research at Morgan Stanley

Investment flows, both from and into US assets, were a key theme in our client conversations in multiple meetings across the pond last week. While many questions concerned the tax provisions under Section 899 proposed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which have since been removed, the subtext was clear – are investors, particularly foreign investors, fleeing US assets? While investors may have many reasons for rethinking allocations to any market – valuations, the growth outlook for the economy, or company earnings, among others – the narrative behind these questions centered on uncertainty from the multiple pronouncements and reversals on trade and tariff policy.