The United States has by far the world’s largest stock market, with many opportunities for investors. Exchange-traded funds can make it easier and cheaper to add US stocks to a portfolio than traditional mutual funds.
For Canadian investors looking to invest in US stock ETFs, there are 16 funds which Morningstar has given Gold, Silver, or Bronze Medalist Ratings. Of these, 13 are index funds—six track the S&P 500, three track total-market indexes, and four track other indexes. The three active funds are the C$2.4 billion BMO Low Volatility US Equity ETF, the C$89 million BMO Low Volatility US Equity Hedged to CAD ETF, and the C$228 JPMorgan US Equity Premium Income Active ETF.
- iShares Core S&P 500 ETF XUS
- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VFV
- BMO S&P 500 ETF ZSP
- iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (CAD-Hedged) XSP
- BMO S&P 500 Hedged to CAD ETF ZUE
- Vanguard S&P 500 ETF CAD-Hedged VSP
- iShares Core S&P US Total Market ETF XUU
- Vanguard US Total Market ETF
VUN
- iShares Core S&P US Total Market ETF CAD-Hedged XUH
- BMO Low Volatility US Equity ETF ZLU
- BMO Low Volatility US Equity Hedged to CAD ETF ZLH
- iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor Index ETF XQLT
- iShares MSCI USA Value Factor Index ETF XVLU
- iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA Index ETF XSUS
- Invesco RAFI US Index ETF PXU.F
- JPMorgan US Equity Premium Income Active ETF JEPI
Screening for the Best US Stock ETFs
We screened the Morningstar US equity fund category for ETFs with Gold, Silver, or Bronze Medalist Ratings that are 100% assigned by Morningstar analysts, rather than indirectly or quantitatively assigned. Data in the text and tables is from Morningstar Direct.
Here’s a closer look at the best US stock ETFs for Canadian investors. A table with their recent performance is at the end of this article.
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★★★
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★★★
BMO S&P 500 ETF (CAD)
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★★★
These three above funds track the S&P 500, an index of the large-cap stocks that make up roughly 80% of the US stock market’s capitalization. Each is described as a “best-in-class option for large-cap investors” by Morningstar associate analyst Brendan McCann. “The end portfolio is well-diversified and accurately represents the US large-cap opportunity set. This allows the strategy to closely track the performance of the large-cap market.” All three funds have manager expense ratios of 0.09%.
iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (CAD-Hedged)
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★
BMO S&P 500 Hedged to CAD ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★
Vanguard S&P 500 ETF CAD-Hedged
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★★
These funds track currency-hedged versions of the S&P 500. Currency hedging is a strategy that uses derivatives to counteract fluctuations in the exchange rate between different currencies (in this case, the US dollar and the Canadian dollar). All three funds have the same manager expense ratio of 0.09% and are considered “best in class” by McCann.
“While hedged funds mitigate currency risk, the costs of hedging can negatively affect returns,” writes McCann. “Unhedged funds are exposed to fluctuations in currency, but the impact of foreign-exchange rates on total return tends to wash out over the long run.”
iShares Core S&P US Total Market ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★★
Vanguard US Total Market ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★★
These two total market ETFs offer exposure to virtually the entire US stock market, as opposed to the S&P 500, which doesn’t include stocks of smaller firms. The iShares fund tracks the S&P Total Market Index CAD, while the Vanguard fund tracks the CRSP US Total Market Index CAD.
The Vanguard fund “typically holds more than 3,500 stocks,” according to McCann, compared with more than 2,500 for the iShares fund. The iShares fund is cheaper, with an expense ratio of 0.07%, compared with 0.17% for the Vanguard fund.
iShares Core S&P US Total Market ETF CADH
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Gold
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★
The C$441 million iShares Core S&P US Total Mkt ETF CADH fund offers a currency-hedged version of the iShares Core S&P US Total Market ETF. It carries a 0.08% manager expense ratio.
BMO Low Volatility US Equity ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Bronze
- Morningstar Rating: ★★
BMO Low Volatility US Equity Hedged to CAD ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Bronze
- Morningstar Rating: ★★
These BMO low-volatility ETFs are two of the three actively managed names on the list. Each invests in 100 large-cap US stocks, with the aim of creating a portfolio to reduce risk and minimize losses during downturns in the market.
While the funds are technically actively managed, they don’t engage in qualitative stock-picking, relying instead on a quantitative rules-based system to assemble their portfolios. According to Morningstar manager research analyst Zachary Evens, the funds invest in the 100 large-cap US stocks with the lowest beta (a measure of a stock’s volatility relative to the broader market).
“The fund calculates beta using five years of data, with more emphasis placed on recent years,” says McCann. “That results in a portfolio designed to exhibit lower volatility than the US market, with shallower drawdowns but less upside potential.”
The main difference between the two BMO low volatility funds is that one uses derivatives to cancel out the effect of currency fluctuations. “BMO Low Volatility US Equity ETF (CAD) has consistently delivered lower volatility than the category index, but that stability has diminished returns,” wrote McCann. “It underperformed the Morningstar US Market CAD Index by 3.09 percentage points annualized since its inception in 2013 through July 2025.”
iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor Index ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Silver
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★★
This C$209 million fund tracks the MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality Index. “It seeks mid- and large-cap companies that exhibit high profitability, low leverage, and stable recent earnings growth,” writes Evens. “These measures are scored against sector peers to arrive at a composite quality score.” The fund then takes the stocks with the highest scores on these metrics in each sector and creates a portfolio of 125 stocks. It limits the difference in sector weighting compared with its parent index.
iShares MSCI USA Value Factor Index ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Silver
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★
The C$44 million iShares MSCI USA Value Factor ETF follows the iShares MSCI USA Enhanced Value Index. Like iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor, this fund tries to minimize how much its sector composition differs from the MSCI USA Index, as certain sectors tend to have higher ratings in value metrics.
iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA Index ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Silver
- Morningstar Rating: ★★★★
The C$597 million iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF is the only one of these funds to evaluate the environmental, social, and governance characteristics of the stocks it invests in. The fund tracks the MSCI USA Extended ESG Focus Index, which invests in mid- and large-cap US stocks that score well on those categories.
“The index starts by implementing ESG screens on the MSCI USA Index—a market-cap-weighted portfolio of large- and mid-cap US stocks," writes Morningstar analyst Lan Anh Tran. “It removes companies involved in severe controversies or controversial businesses such as tobacco, fossil fuels, controversial weapons, and civilian firearms.” It also limits the degree to which the fund’s investments can differ from the sector weightings of the MSCI USA Index.
Invesco RAFI US Index ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Bronze
- Morningstar Rating: ★★
This C$57 million fund tracks the RAFI Fundamental Select US 1000 Index. “The RAFI Fundamental Select US 1000 Index absorbs the 1,000 largest US stocks based on fundamental size,” writes Morningstar senior manager research analyst Daniel Sotiroff. “The index measures fundamental size by combining book value plus intangibles, sales adjusted for leverage, operating cash flow plus research and development expenses, and dividends plus buybacks.”
JPMorgan US Equity Premium Income Active ETF
- Morningstar Medalist Rating: Bronze
- Morningstar Rating: N/A
The C$228 million JPMorgan US Equity Premium Income Active ETF JEPI is one of the three actively managed funds on the list. A version of the $40 billion US fund of the same name, it uses a covered call strategy, holding a portfolio of assets and selling call options (options to buy a stock at a particular price). This limits the portfolio’s upside potential, because if a stock goes above the level of an option, the buyer of the option can purchase it at that lower level.
“JPMorgan Equity Premium Income takes a nuanced approach to covered calls that delivers high income while reducing downside risk,” writes Tran. “In general, covered call funds have not been the best buy-and-hold investments for investors with a longer time horizon. The stock portfolio’s upside is capped, and the downside remains exposed to significant drawdowns, which can erode an investor’s long-term total returns.”
