It's always easy to think things taste better on holiday than at home. But investors looking for appetizing bargains in overseas markets should consider whether there are stocks at a discount in the U.S. as well.

Foreign stock markets are outperforming the S&P 500 so far this year, with the standouts in Asia. Japan's Nikkei 225 has been supercharged by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's election victory. But South Korea's KOSPI Composite is leading with a 26% gain so far in 2026, fueled by significant rises for memory-chip heavyweights SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics.

Some international diversification is probably a good idea. There are plenty of decent companies in other countries -- just ask Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, whose bet on Japanese trading companies is rapidly turning out to be a late-career masterstroke. Funds tracking a foreign index are a handy way to get diversification beyond the technology sector.

Foreign holdings can also act as a hedge against a weakening dollar with less volatility than the sharp swings in gold and silver prices so far this year. That could be particularly important amid the Trump administration's seeming indifference toward the greenback. Federal Reserve governor Stephen Miran -- who recently stepped down from his position at the White House -- played down the dollar's recent weakness in comments on Monday.

But that doesn't mean investors should ignore opportunities that present themselves in the U.S. Some American stocks are being irrationally hit by fears of disruption by artificial intelligence. The latest example is the insurance sector, where shares dived Monday on news of the first AI insurance app to be built on ChatGPT. It's hard to see how that justifies a 12% drop for broker Willis Towers Watson, which specializes in commercial insurance, a specialized and complex area that AI is unlikely to be able to tackle, at least in the near future.

Foreign flavor can be the thing to spice up any portfolio, but don't ignore the virtues of home comforts.

-- Adam Clark

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Alphabet's AI-Fueled Bond Sale Features a Century Tranche

Alphabet has plans to spend big on artificial intelligence, and it's turning to the bond market to help raise the money. One interesting aspect of this multipart bond sale is that the Google parent plans to include a tranche that won't mature until 2126, a century from now. That's something that was big in the 1990s.

   -- Ford Motor sold its first century bond in 1997. Motorola, Walt Disney, 
      Coca-Cola, and International Business Machines also issued them in the 
      1990s. Google sold $20 billion of bonds on Monday, and bond sales today 
      in Europe could have the century tranche in British pounds. 
 
   -- Google's $185 billion 2026 capex plans are a massive bet on the future, 
      along with its broader ambitions in self-driving cars, robotics, AI 
      technologies, and quantum computing. CEO Sundar Pichai isn't making bold 
      predictions too far past the next decade of Alphabet's "moon shot" 
      ambitions. 
 
   -- Investors nevertheless seem willing to buy. Reports suggest Google's bond 
      offering, including tranches in Swiss francs, British pounds, and U.S. 
      dollars, as well as maturities ranging from 3 years to 100 years, has 
      attracted more than $100 billion in overall demand. 
 
   -- Nancy Tengler, CEO and CIO of Laffer Tengler Investments, said things are 
      different than they were in the 1990s in that companies now have big cash 
      reserves. Investors are also betting that along with AI, robotics, space, 
      quantum, and nuclear sectors will drive meaningful change. 

What's Next: The prospect of a 100-year tranche is unconventional because of how hard it is to predict technology's staying power. Spreads of bonds issued by major software companies have widened relative to other investment-grade corporates because of AI-related jitters.

-- Martin Baccardax and Janet H. Cho

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Holtec Poised to Be Largest Nuclear Power IPOs in Years

Holtec International, a nuclear energy company on the verge of reopening a closed reactor in southwestern Michigan, has filed confidentially with the SEC to go public in what could be one of the nuclear industry's biggest IPOs in years. It could be valued at over $10 billion.

   -- Florida-based Holtec makes equipment to store nuclear waste and 
      decommissions existing nuclear plants. The company is now adding a new 
      business line: building and potentially operating its own plants, 
      starting with the reactor in Michigan. Axios first reported the IPO 
      filing. 
 
   -- The Palisades Nuclear Plant off Lake Michigan was shut down in 2022 and 
      sold to Holtec, which was expected to tear down the buildings and store 
      the nuclear waste. But state and federal officials asked Holtec to get 
      the reactor running again, because they want the carbon-free power. 
 
   -- Barron's reported in June that CEO Krishna Singh planned to take the 
      company public this year. Singh said then that he was aiming to sell 
      about 20% of the company's shares to the public. Holtec's annual income 
      is over $500 million, someone familiar with its finances said last year. 
 
   -- Holtec is seeking approval to place two small modular reactors at the 
      Palisades site. The Trump administration awarded Holtec a grant to build 
      them. Although there are no small reactors yet in the U.S., dozens of 
      companies are trying to get them approved. 

What's Next: Holtec is on the verge of reopening Palisades, with hundreds of millions of dollars in financial support from the state of Michigan and the Energy Department. A company representative said the plant is likely to open in the first half of the year.

-- Avi Salzman and Janet H. Cho

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Fed's Miran Optimistic on Fiscal Outlook and Economic Growth

Federal Reserve governor Stephen Miran believes that higher tariffs are helping to push the U.S. onto better financial footing, predicting that economic growth will be much higher this year while remaining unconcerned about the national debt and fiscal sustainability. Substantial tariff revenue covers a lot of the debt issues.

   -- Miran's remarks landed the same day a Gallup poll said Americans see the 
      stock market and economy gaining over the next six months, though they 
      expressed pessimism about unemployment and inflation. About half think 
      the stock market will go up at least a little, and the same with economic 
      growth. 
 
   -- Miran said he believes the Congressional Budget Office's projected $3 
      trillion deficit reduction from tariff changes underestimates the 
      positive effects of some previous policies, like Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 
      And he added that he's expecting better growth from artificial 
      intelligence and regulatory changes. 
 
   -- Miran expects gross domestic product growth to be a full percentage point 
      higher because of the tax policy and changes to the regulatory landscape. 
      The Bureau of Economic Analysis is set to publish fourth-quarter 
      inflation-adjusted GDP on Feb. 20, but economists expect economic growth 
      was 2% last year. 
 
   -- "And I think that the better GDP growth as a result of the One Big 
      Beautiful Bill Act, and as a result of AI as well as a result of cutting 
      regulations -- I think that's also going to reduce the primary deficit," 
      Miran said in a speech at Boston University. 

What's Next: The Gallup poll said about 50% of Americans see the economy improving a little to a lot over the next six months, while 36% see it declining a little to a lot. But half see unemployment rising a little to a lot over the same time, and 62% see inflation rising at least a little.

-- Megan Leonhardt and Liz Moyer

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Amid Crypto, Prediction Market Scrutiny, CFTC's Enforcement Shrinks

The CFTC's high profile Chicago enforcement division has had a role in most major enforcement actions since 1975, including prosecuting self-serving traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the late 80s and bringing civil charges against crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried. But it has become a ghost town in recent months.

   -- A team once made up of 20 enforcement attorneys now has one, people 
      familiar with the office tell Barron's. The changes at the Commodity 
      Futures Trading Commission come as the proliferation of cryptocurrency 
      and prediction markets threatens to open the door to new forms of 
      malfeasance and insider trading. 
 
   -- Barron's spoke with six former CFTC litigators and leadership officials, 
      four of whom worked in the Chicago enforcement division. A CFTC spokesman 
      said most of the staff separations at the agency stemmed from voluntary 
      decisions tied to early retirement offers. 
 
   -- The changes began in President Donald Trump's second term. Caroline Pham 
      moved from a CFTC commissioner to acting chair and undertook sweeping 
      changes at the enforcement division, closing about half of its open cases 
      -- sometimes without consulting the teams involved -- a move against 
      litigation she saw as "regulation by enforcement." 
 
   -- In fiscal 2024, the CFTC brought 58 enforcement actions and won a record 
      $17.1 billion in monetary relief. In 2025, 13 enforcement actions 
      resulted in less than $10 million. Four of the five chief trial attorneys 
      in the Chicago division got reduction-in-force notices last July, as did 
      the deputy director. 

What's Next: Last July, the House approved giving jurisdiction over most cryptocurrencies to the CFTC, rather than the SEC. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act is waiting on Senate action, but should it become law, former CFTC attorneys tell Barron's the enforcement division may be overwhelmed by a lack of staff.

-- Nick Devor

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Kyndryl Stock Slumps 55% After CFO Departs

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