US equities are at new highs and still trade at the same price-earnings (PE) premium, with expected US profit growth of around 15% in 2026 supporting valuations. As other markets have re-rated, global PE discounts have narrowed, making value harder to find.<\/p>\n
Taiwan has moved to a premium of over 20% versus its average PE, making it the most expensive market relative to its own history. This is linked to its role in the AI hardware supply chain.<\/p>\n
South Korea has also seen strong price momentum tied to AI, yet it continues to trade at a discount. Expected profit growth of 100% is cited as a factor affecting its valuation.<\/p>\n
Brazil has shifted from a 30% PE discount last year to a 7% premium. The move is partly linked to changes in sentiment towards emerging market risk, and Brazil is described as a major oil exporter.<\/p>\n
With US markets at new highs, we must consider the risk that strong profit growth is already priced in. The latest jobs report from April 2026 came in hotter than expected, raising the possibility that the Federal Reserve will delay any rate cuts, which could act as a headwind for equities. Therefore, we should consider buying protective puts on broad market indices to hedge our long exposure against a potential pullback in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s market valuation, now at a 20% premium to its historical average, appears stretched and heavily reliant on the AI narrative. News just last week that a major US cloud provider slightly trimmed its capital expenditure forecast for the second half of 2026 could be an early warning sign for the AI hardware supply chain. This situation suggests purchasing put options on key Taiwanese semiconductor stocks to speculate on a sentiment shift.<\/p>\n
In contrast, South Korea remains attractive as its dramatic 100% profit growth forecast for 2026 is not yet fully reflected in its valuation. We saw evidence of this strength when Samsung\u2019s preliminary Q1 earnings in April 2026 easily beat analyst estimates, driven by demand for its AI-focused memory chips. Bullish call spreads on the KOSPI 200 index could be a capital-efficient way to position for more upside as the market re-rates.<\/p>\n
The significant re-rating in Brazil, which we saw flip from a 30% discount in 2025 to a 7% premium today, indicates that positive sentiment may be peaking. This rally was partly fueled by strong oil prices, but Brent crude has recently dipped below $85 a barrel following signs of discord within OPEC+. Given Brazil\u2019s valuation is no longer cheap and its key commodity driver is weakening, selling out-of-the-money calls on Brazilian ETFs allows us to collect premium while betting the rally will stall.<\/p>\n
Create your live VT Markets account<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0start trading<\/a>\u00a0now. <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Global valuations look fuller: US stays pricey but justified, Taiwan most expensive; Korea discounted; Brazil rerated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-updates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"josephine","author_link":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/author\/josephine\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET","POST","PUT","PATCH","DELETE"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vtmarketsglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}