Wonder

Research Outline

Prepared for Tova | Delivered February 24, 2020

Foreign Investors: US Stocks

Goals

To determine what country is the most interested in U.S. stock-related news and investments for a financial publishing website by identifying the number of people/investors of U.S. stocks from the following countries: Italy, Spain, the U.K., Russia, Japan, China, Korea, France, and Germany. 

Early Findings

The proportion of U.S. long-term securities held by foreign companies was around 20% between June 2017 to June 2018 according to the US Treasury. However, a New York Times article stated it was closer to 35% in 2018. 
Santander created a report of the top countries that invest in U.S. stocks. The report is based on the percentage (%) of FDI in U.S. stocks invested in by each country in the year 2017 (Italy, Korea, and Russia were not included) : 
         -U.K.: 15.2
         -Japan: 11.8
         -Spain: 1.8
         -Germany: 10.1
         -France: 7.5
         -China: 1.4
 SelectUSA created a similar report for the year of 2018 that identifies the largest percentages (%) of FDI investment by country (Russia and Italy were not included in the top): 
         -U.K.: 13.7
         -Japan: 11.2
         -Germany: 10.9
         -France: 7.5
         -Spain: 1.8
         -China: 1.4
         -South Korea: 1.3
The report also identified the fastest-growing sources of foreign investment in the U.S. stock market. China (35.2%) and South Korea (13.2%) were both included on this list. 
Summary of FindingsInitial research has found the amount of FDI into U.S. stocks is generally categorized by the amount of money invested or the percentage of U.S. stocks owned by the country, not the estimated number of stocks or investors from each country. 
Additionally, there was little information on the percentage of U.S. stocks invested in by Russia and Italy, but information was found on the amount of money each country invested. 