Over 2025 to date, I have struggled to find quality ASX shares that I'd be happy to add to my stock portfolio. Well, that's not entirely true. I know the ASX shares, such as Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) and Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co Ltd (ASX: SOL), which I'd like to buy more of. It's just that I haven't been offered the share prices that I would like to see. But US stocks? That's a different story.
Most of my 2025 buying has been on the other side of the Pacific. The US markets were (understandably) far harder hit than the ASX was in the Trump tariff tantrum that the markets went through last month. That made buying US stocks far more compelling than shopping on our local market. At least for this investor. So here are two US stocks that I've been buying in 2025 to date.
2 US stocks I've been buying in 2025
US stock 1: Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
First up is a company we'd all be familiar with – Google-owner Alphabet. I've long admired and owned Alphabet stock for its dominance in the global search space. It's an incredible thing to be a leading provider of advertising services in almost every country in the world. Yet that's the moat that Alphabet offers investors.
Sure, there are questions about its future dominance thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Yet I believe that Alphabet's own AI platform, Gemini, is among the best on the market and will help the company bridge the jump to the future.
Additionally, Alphabet owns other popular businesses like YouTube and its autonomous driving division, Waymo. With a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio under 20, I think Alphabet is one of the most attractive buys on any market right now.
2: Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (NYSE: SCHD)
Next, we have an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF. SCHD is one of the most exciting ETFs on the US markets, in my view. It holds a range of US stocks selected for their dividend growth potential. These include famous names such as Coca-Cola Co, Home Depot, Chevron, and Altria Group.
SCHD's methodology has allowed it to increase its annual dividend distributions for the past 13 years in a row. These increases have averaged more than 11% per annum over the past five and ten years.
Last month, investors had the opportunity to buy SCHD units at some of the lowest prices we've seen in years. I was happy to seize this opportunity to buy more of this quality ETF.
