Have you been wondering if and how it could be a good idea to invest in US stocks and ETFs? If yes, you might want to note that the total assets managed by U.S. ETFs, which currently number 1714, are $4,788.11 billion. With $369.98 billion in assets, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY is the most significant U.S. ETF. To know more on why you should invest in US stocks and ETFs, and what could be the best app to do so from India, keep reading.

Reasons Why You Should Invest in the US Market Right Now

Good Jobs Report

The rate of inflation is still extremely high. Despite a surprise positive July jobs data, recession worry still rules Wall Street. And the second quarter earnings reports have not exactly been stellar. Mislav Matejka, a leading strategist at JP Morgan, is, however, positive on stocks despite all of this. As the end of the year gets closer, Matejka thinks that the risk-reward ratio for stocks isn’t entirely negative. It has been claimed that the weak dataflow can now be viewed as positive, leading to a change in policy and that the activity slowdown may not be as severe as initially thought.

Matejka claims that values appear tempting when compared to fixed income and in terms of its absolute value. Institutional investors are ready to begin investing their money and are hoarding more cash than usual. The economic downturn is not causing any signs of a significant recession. 528,000 new jobs were added by businesses in July, which was higher than expected. Numerous statistics suggest that unemployment is at the lowest point in decades, such as the ratio of job advertisements to applications, leave rates, and wage discrepancies between job swappers and stayers.

The highest-ever reading of the pay tracker from the Atlanta Fed, which displays a yearly growth rate of 7.2%, supports this. According to data issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the non-agricultural payrolls increased significantly in August 2022 despite the economy generally growing slowly. The unemployment rate hardly increased as more people entered the labor force. The total number of new positions for the month was 315,000, slightly below the Dow Jones forecast of 318,000, far lower than 526,000 during July, and the smallest monthly increase since April 2021. Even yet, the rate of pay increase has lagged behind expectations. The hourly wage average increased by 0.3% for that particular month and by 5.2% from the previous year.

Attractive Valuations

The US stock market valuations appear attractive at the moment. The valuations are lower than the 25-year average and are approaching -1 SD, as per the chart below. Take a look at the chart to understand the current valuations in the market before you look further into how to buy US stocks from India:

Source: JP Morgan

Consumer Spending is Still Being Supported by Extra Savings From the Pandemic

The American people are using a sizable amount of money they have accumulated over the course of the pandemic, even though surging inflation is dramatically raising the costs of food, shelter, and other necessities. At the start of the COVID-19 breakout, Americans built up their cash reserves as they dug in, stayed put, and stopped paying for things, including eating out travelling, and other expenses.

Due to pandemic constraints, high-income households saved money by skipping vacations, eating out, and other customary expenses. Strong government assistance helped low- and middle-income families, including expanded unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, and accommodation and food assistance. Zandi had estimated that by May 2022, the overall surplus savings by Americans had decreased to $2.5 trillion, or more than 10% of the GDP. Here are some consumer finance statistics from the US for you to look at as you consider how to purchase US equities from India:

Source: JP Morgan

Consumers accumulated $2.3 trillion in surplus savings between March 2020 and August 2021. However, consumers started utilizing their extra savings as of August 2021, with the balance shown in the chart above.

Household Debt Service Ratio Has Gone Lower Than That of 2008-2009

As the market recovers from the pandemic, worries of a debt hangover such as the one that followed the financial crisis are intensifying. However, given that US household balance sheets are all at their healthiest point in decades, we see little chance of a consumer debt hangover decelerating the current rise anytime soon. The household debt service ratio in 2007 was 13.2%, which has gone down to 9.5% in 2020 (see chart below). The more thoroughly one looks at both the home and national balance sheets, the greater it appears that this concern is rather overstated and ignores the development in household incomes over the previous few decades, although unevenly distributed it might have been, in addition to its capacity to support public debt as well as upgrades to the nation’s infrastructure.

Source: JP Morgan

Why Are Indians Investing in International stocks?

More than ever, Indians are investing in overseas equity and debt. The Liberalized Remittance Scheme for Residents Individuals’ outgoing remittances are expected to reach close to $19610.77 million during 2021–22 as opposed to $18760.69 million in 2019–20, according to the most recent data from the RBI. About the overall amount of remittances made overseas, equity and debt investments climbed from $431.41 million in 2019–20 to $746.57 million in 2021–22. Indians continue to turn to the US stock market when making international investments.

Demystifying ETFs

The term “liquidity” describes the capacity to acquire or sell securities quickly, readily, and at a fair price. Since individual equities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) both trade on stock exchanges, many investors assume that the variables affecting the liquidity of both stocks must also be comparable. They aren’t. ETF liquidity is frequently far higher than most investors believe.

ETFs function in a distinct ecosystem compared to other financial products that trade on stock exchanges, like individual equities or closed-end funds. ETFs have been open-ended investment vehicles that can issue and withdraw shares on a secondary market in response to investor supply and demand, unlike these securities, which have a fixed amount of shares in circulation.

Top 10 ETFs by AUM

You may take a look at the following table of the top 10 ETFs by AUM:

ETF Name	Total Assets ($MM)
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust	$351,196.00
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF	$294,922.00
Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF	$264,996.00
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF	$263,937.00
Invesco QQQ Trust	$170,875.00
Vanguard Value ETF	$99,054.80
Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF	$82,003.50
iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF	$81,286.50
Vanguard Growth ETF	$74,576.40
iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF	$64,482.60

Source: etfdb.com

Best App to Invest in the US Market From India

In this journey, it is important to have an efficient broker and platform to perform well here. The new-age apps are doing a great job of democratization of finance. Are you wondering which are the best apps to invest in US stocks from India? Stockal is one app specialising in investments in US markets with its different offerings like Stacks, ETFs, funds and cash management, etc. Stockal gives you the platform to invest in US stocks such as Amazon, Apple, and Google, which also happen to be brands that are part of your daily life. Check out this video to see how you can invest in US markets with Stockal through an easy single account opening procedure and how it helps you earn money in dollars.

What Makes Stockal the Best App for Investing in US Stock Markets?

Largest Number of Stocks to Invest In

The reason Stockal is among the best apps to invest in US stocks from India is that it is a neo-brokerage that enables everyday Indian investors to save and invest money internationally. On its platform, Stockal currently provides investors in India and the Middle Eastern region access to more than 5,500 EFTSs and companies traded on American markets. Investors have various options, including direct stock investing, ETF purchases, and international portfolios prepared by financial experts.

Stockal’s global investing platform powers several of the largest brokerage companies, wealth management enterprises, robo-advisors, and fintech platforms, in India and the Middle East. These aid thousands of investors each day in globalizing their assets and investments.

Investing globally with new growth opportunities: Direct stock investing in US markets, owning companies having world-class products and services. Stockal is one of the best apps to invest in US stocks from India because it has a large selection of stocks and ETFs to help your worldwide diversification.

Fractional investing helps you invest in global brands and companies you like: You will learn about companies, products, ideas, and opportunities that are occasionally accessible locally through worldwide markets. With Stockal, you can invest in US stocks in fractional shares of firms like Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Netflix, and many others. One of the unique aspects of the US stock market is that investors still can own fractions of equity, contrary to markets in other countries like India. For instance, you might own 0.05 shares of Apple. Simply enter the amount you wish to invest; an algorithm will determine how many units you will receive. Your account will then be updated with these units.

Offering a Curated Stack of Relevant Stocks

Stockal is the best app for the US stock market because it offers pre-configured stock and ETF baskets that can be invested with just a single click. It is produced by hedge funds, seasoned wealth management firms, global asset management companies, and portfolio managers.

Good Diversification: Without performing many studies, you can diversify the holdings with only one click.
Adeptly managed: Created by investment professionals after thorough research and financial analysis.
Automatic: Active rebalancing to ensure adherence to goals and standards

Unmatched Coverage of ETFs

ETFs are investment vehicles that, as the name implies, can be traded publicly on the stock market just like stocks. This financial product is viewed as an asset class that offers a blend of both because it was developed with the diversity of mutual funds and the liquidity of equities in mind. Like shares, the value of ETFs constantly changes throughout trading hours, making it simple for investors to buy or sell at any time during regular market hours. A range of underlying assets, including commodities, stocks, bonds, or a combination of all three, may be purchased by an ETF. An ETF may have small shares from a single industry or company or hold shares from various businesses.

Investing in U.S. ETFs is a smart way for foreign investors to diversify their portfolios. Moving more money to exchange-traded funds with passive management allows you to participate in the US stock market and maximize your investment portfolio. Stockal provides you with access to a very efficient and user-friendly global investing that will be your intelligent companion in addition to providing you with top-notch research.

EFTs are comparatively inexpensive products that are a fantastic choice for investors because of their minimal expenses and long-term advantages. Because there are many underlying assets in ETFs, the risk is reduced while rewards are increased, and the risk of one particular underlying asset gets covered by the risk of the other.

The investment objective of the Global ETF Stack is to purchase Equity Index ETFs, which represent the United States and global equity markets. The selected ETFs are very liquid, have a moderate undervaluation, and have the possibility of outperforming equity markets in time. Another selection criterion for the ETFs is that they must have historically outperformed similar Equity Index ETFs or benchmark ETFs. With low expense ratios, high dividend yields, plus net positive cash inflows of investors during the previous year, the ETFs in this stack have strong fundamentals.

Cash Management

Utilizing a Cash Management Account on Stockal, you can save money and invest it in a currency with a higher value. So you wouldn’t feel as tight when it came time to spend money. You can log in to this global saving and expense account anytime and anywhere.

Within five minutes, sign up for a Cash Management account with the help of its broker and banking partners.
Utilize Stockal’s banking connections in your country to digitally fund your account after gaining approval.
After that, you can use a debit card, internet, P2P transfers, or ATM to access it anytime and anywhere.

The advantages of the Stockal cash management account are as follows:

While you invest in US stocks, you have access to the cash management account with Stockal, which is better than a typical US savings account.
There are no requirements, and interest can be raised. Money can be transferred and/or spent in any way you like.
No US visa or SSN is necessary for the Stockal Cash Management account.
It is a good idea to diversify personal assets across multiple currencies to protect yourself from changes in the economy of your own nation.
Receive yearly rates between 2-3% in US dollars that, when converted to the local currency, may offer much higher yields than standard savings accounts.

Multiple Trading Platforms

Due to its several trading platforms, Stockal is the finest software for Indian investors looking to buy US equities. The trading interfaces for Stockal are slick, uncomplicated, and browser-based. You can use Stockal Web on any internet-connected device, complete with customization possibilities and various charting tools because no program needs to be downloaded.

Tools and Research – Zacks and Stock/ ETF Screening Tool

Stockal is the finest app for Indian investors as it has a modular, easy-to-integrate product structure and a structured API approach. Its design may be altered to perform by developer requirements and your quality standards, thanks to its deep, precise customizability.

No Account Minimums

Contrary to the bulk of traditional investment platforms, Stockal has no account limits. There is no minimum account balance requirement on Stockal.

Compliance Made Easy

Your securities account is administered by DriveWealth LLC, a provider of brokerage and clearing services, and your overseas investment accounts are held by this company. Even if Stockal fails, your account will still be secure with DriveWealth LLC, allowing you to access and transfer it to another brokerage as you see fit. Your US investing account also includes automatic insurance.

Bottom Line

All these features will make investing hassle-free and offer all the necessary resources and advice, thus making Stockal one of the best apps to invest in US stocks from India. Let’s now join the over 280,000 investors who already have put their trust in Stockal.

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