Dimensional International Small Cap ETF

DFIS

Market cap $5.85B

Little-known China AI startup DeepSeek sent fear rippling throughout the markets this week by announcing major strides in its large language model technology at just a fraction of the cost of what many experts thought possible. That sparked a mini-collapse among big-cap tech stocks like Microsoft, Google, and Nvidia, which tumbled 20% at its low.

International Small Cap stocks currently offer better valuation compared to US Small-Cap stocks, as indicated by ETF comparisons. GWX ranks last in the Foreign Small/Mid Blend category, earning a Strong Sell rating due to poor relative performance.  DFIS, the top-ranked ETF gets a Buy rating. This article reviews both GWX's and DFIS's current holdings, and then explores the reason why their returns vary so much.

A recent article about ETFs to buy from Morningstar.com caught my attention for a few reasons.  First, Ryan Jackson, a manager research analyst for passive strategies for Morningstar, recommended highly rated ETFs that have struggled recently.

Active ETF strategies have stormed the scene over the past year and are growing at a dizzying pace. First-quarter net inflows into actively managed ETFs surged past the previous record to $66 billion.