VGK Has Nearly Doubled VOO Returns This Year. Here Is What Investors Should Know

By John Seetoo Published Apr 10, 10:00AM EDT

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Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is down -3.05% YTD while Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK) is up +0.69%, with VOO’s $1.42 trillion in assets heavily concentrated in Magnificent 7 tech stocks at 7.31% for Nvidia alone, while VGK’s $37.35 billion portfolio is more balanced across financials and industrials with a lower 18.29 P/E ratio versus VOO’s 26.84.
A weakening US dollar driven by rising federal debt and de-dollarization efforts by BRICS nations, combined with investor skepticism about AI bubble valuations and preference for lower P/E European stocks, is propelling VGK past the historically dominant VOO in 2026 performance.

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VGK Has Nearly Doubled VOO Returns This Year. Here Is What Investors Should Know — © US dollars on the map of Europe. American investment and trading with EU, european economy (Shutterstock.com) by Oleg Elkov

The S&P 500 has long been an accepted benchmark of US industrial health status, and has been a consistent winner, delivering annual gains to investors for decades. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: VOO | VOO Price Prediction) is the most popular ETF that tracks the S&P 500, and at $1.4 trillion in AUM, it is the market’s #1 largest ETF. However, it is lagging behind its mirror opposite ETF at this time. The Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (NYSE: VGK) is designed to track the FTSE Developed Europe All Cap Index, and covers stocks throughout Europe and Scandinavia. On a year-to-date comparison, VOO is presently delivering a dismal -3.05% at the time of this writing, while VGK is at least in the black, doing considerably better by comparison at +0.69%.

Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF

High detailed political map of western Europe

VGK is comprised of stocks from companies in Western Europe, UK, and Scandinavia.

Issued by Vanguard, the second largest asset manager in the world after BlackRock, the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF tracks the FTSE Developed Europe All Cap Index, which covers stocks from the Eurozone and Scandinavia. VGK is a passively managed ETF with an inception date of 3-4-2005. After climbing nearly 10% since the start of 2026, and seeing several billion more in inflows, March 2026 has erased nearly all of those gains, yet it still has managed to stay in the black, which can’t be said for VOO. VGK has a Morningstar gold medalist rating.

Net Assets	$37.35 billion	Avg. Daily Volume	4.2million shares
Yield	3.01%	YTD Return	0.69%
52 Wk. Range	$62.02-$90.75	1-Year return	36.83%
Beta	0.99	3-Year return	14.29%
Expense Ratio	0.06%	5-Year Return	9.04%
P/E Ratio	18.29	10-Year Return	8.88%

The top 10 holdings of VGK are:

ASML Holding – 3.54%
Roche Holding AG – 2.07%
Novartis AG – 2.00%
HSBC Holdings – 1.99%
AstraZeneca PLC – 1.95%
Nestle SA – 1.71%
Shell PLC – 1.50%
Siemens – 1.31%
SAP SE – 1.28%
Banco Santander SA – 1.16%

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

Probably the most widely held ETF in the world, VOO has made millions of investors very happy, as the S&P 500 has continued to bring home the bacon. In fact, the S&P 500 is held in such high regard by Warren Buffett that he made and won a legendary $1 million bet with a hedge fund manager that the S&P 500 would outperform the manager’s fund over a 10-year span. For better or worse, the market-weighted S&P 500 is dominated and driven by the Magnificent 7 A.I. tech stocks, and its volatility and fortunes have risen and fallen accordingly.

Net Assets	$1.42 trillion	Avg. Daily Volume	10.8 million shares
Yield	1.19%	YTD Return	-3.05%
52 Wk. Range	$449.60-$641.81	1-Year return	32.31%
Beta	1.00	3-Year return	18.28%
Expense Ratio	0.03%	5-Year Return	12.02%
P/E Ratio	26.84	10-Year Return	14.12%

Top 10 VOO Holdings:

Nvidia Corp. – 7.31%
Apple Inc. – 6.63%
Microsoft Corp. – 4.96%
Amazon.com Inc. – 3.47%
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) – 3.08%
Broadcom, Inc. – 2.56%
Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) – 2.46%
Meta Platforms, Inc. (Facebook) – 2.40%
Tesla, Inc. – 1.92%
Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. – 1.57%

The 2026 Performance Gap To Date

The words and country flags of some of the BRICS and BRICS+ block of countries on top of a pile of US dollar bills. A dedollarisation concept.

Billions in international trade between BRICS member nation away from the US dollar has contributed to its softer valuation.

There are three reasons that analysts have identified as to why VGK is outpacing VOO to date:

A Weakening US Dollar:

With US federal debt approaching $40 trillion, the US dollar has been falling in value – the result of Federal Reserve 24/7 money printing and congressional profligacy. The corresponding soaring value in physical gold and silver has reflected the waning confidence in the stability of US debt. Additionally, the rise of BRICS, which has led to a sizable degree of de-dollarization of international commodity trade, has also removed the allure of the US dollar. Anticipated interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve will likely exert further downward pressure on the US dollar.

Sector Preferences From Global Investors:

The huge bull run on the AI focused Magnificent 7 stocks created the first multi-trillion valuations of Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, et. al. This has also led to fears that the AI industry has become a bubble, not unlike that of the dotcoms. VGK’s stronger weighting towards financials and industrials is appealing to many institutional investors and echoes their skepticism as to current A.I. valuations.

P/E Ratio Difference:

In general, European stocks have lower P/E ratios than U.S. stocks. With fears abounding regarding an overheated stock market, familiar named European stocks have a perceived safer cache.

While VGK’s advantage has been maintained for Q1 2026 into April, there’s a good likelihood that VOO will overtake it sometime over the next few ensuing months. The proliferation of data centers and current US dominance in global energy production are huge “Trump” cards to hold. Adding VGK to a portfolio for the sake of diversification would appear to be a prudent move, although rotating completely away from the US market would be considerably riskier over the long haul.

About the Author John Seetoo →

After 15 years on Wall Street with 7 of them as Director of Corporate and Municipal Bond Trading for a NYSE member firm, I started my own project and corporate finance consultancy. Much of the work involves writing business plans, presentations, white papers and marketing materials for companies seeking budgetary allocations for spinoffs and new initiatives or for raising capital for expansion or startup companies and entrepreneurs. On financial topics, I have been published under my own byline at The Motley Fool, a673b.bigscoots-temp.com, DealFlow Events’ Healthcare Services Investment Newsletter and The Microcap Newsletter, among others. Additionally, I have done freelance ghostwriting writing and editing for several financial websites, such as Seeking Alpha and Shmoop Financial. I have also written and been published on a variety of other topics from music, audiophile sound and film to musical instrument history, martial arts, and current events. Publications include Copper Magazine, Fidelity (Germany), Blasting News, Inside Kung-Fu, and other periodicals.