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Thornburg Webinar Makes the Case for International Income

BY | ETF Database
6:42 am ET 09/23/26 | 5 VIEWS
International stocks deserve a fresh look, according to Josh Rubin, client portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management. The gap between U.S. stock prices and U.S. economic output has never been wider, Rubin told advisors during a Thornburg-sponsored webinar Monday.Key Takeaways Non-U.S. stocks trade at a roughly 30% valuation discount even after stripping out big American tech names. THOR writes call options stock by stock rather than across an entire index, preserving more upside potential. Advisors can use the fund as a bond complement, a core equity holding, or a value-tilted diversifier. Kirsten Chang, senior industry analyst at VettaFi, moderated the session. The discussion tied a weaker U.S. dollar to renewed interest in stocks outside the U.S. U.S. stocks have grown from about 40% of global market value to nearly two-thirds over the past 30 years. The U.S. economy, though, has held at roughly a quarter of world GDP that entire time, Rubin said. See more: Treasury’s Dollar Moves Could Lift International ETFs The webinar centered on the Thornburg Premium Income Builder ETF (THOR), an active fund that pairs a concentrated global dividend portfolio with an options strategy meant to boost income. Rubin said it’s built for a market where U.S. mega-cap tech has captured most of the returns. The 25 largest U.S. stocks made up about 30% of the market a decade ago. Today they exceed 50%, driving more than 70% of U.S. returns, Rubin said. Outside the U.S., the 25 largest names are just above 20% of the market. Yet they’ve produced only about 30% of returns, so stock selection still matters abroad. U.S. companies favor buybacks over dividends, leaving only a few domestic sectors worth chasing for yield. Dividend yields above 3%, meanwhile, show up across many sectors overseas, Rubin said. Non-U.S. stocks also trade at roughly a 30% discount to the U.S. market, a gap that holds even after stripping out the largest American tech names.A Global Fund Overweight International StocksTHOR is actively managed, not a systematic options strategy like the JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI A), Rubin said. Systematic strategies sell call options across an entire index, capping upside in exchange for income. Thornburg writes them stock by stock instead, aiming to keep more upside when a stock’s price runs higher. The fund holds roughly 50 to 70 stocks and targets a beta near 0.7, about 70% of global market swings, with a forward dividend yield near 4.2%, Rubin said. THOR launched on the New York Stock Exchange on June 22, 2026, according to Thornburg’s website. It has since grown to $35.06 million in assets, with a 0.79% expense ratio, as of Sept. 21. Rubin called Thornburg’s income lineup a “Swiss army knife” that can complement a bond allocation, serve as a core equity holding, or add value exposure to a portfolio. Because THOR is underweight U.S. mega-cap tech, he said, “the portfolio can zig when other things zag.” The options income isn’t steady by design. Thornburg’s closed-end fund, the Thornburg Income Builder Opportunities Trust (TBLD), has generated as little as 50 basis points (0.5%) of extra yield in lean years. In stronger years, that figure has topped 200 basis points (2%) over the fund’s five-year history. The difference depends on how much the market pays for that pr otection, Rubin said. For more news, information, and analysis, visit our Portfolio Strategies Content Hub.

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