Beware these stocks with the most to lose from the surging dollar

Published Fri, Sep 9 202211:25 AM EDT

Jesse Pound @/in/jesse-pound @jesserpound

The U.S. dollar is flexing its muscle in 2022 in a show of force unseen in decades — but that could take a bite out of some American companies and their investors. The Federal Reserve's rate hikes, rising price of oil and natural gas and slower economic growth have combined to push up the value of the U.S. dollar to its highest level in 20 years , relative to other currencies. The euro, British pound and Japanese yen have all seen dramatic drops against the greenback this year. While the impact of a stronger dollar differs from company to company, it creates special risk for those with large international sales. For example, if a company has agreed to sell its products in Japan at a fixed contract price in yen, then its reported revenue on a dollar basis would take a hit. The list below shows S & P 500 companies that are headquartered in the U.S. and generate the smallest share of their revenue domestically. Source: FactSet The list is loaded with semiconductor companies, who sell their products to other companies around the globe. Qualcomm and Monolithic Power Systems , for example, have less than 5% of revenue from the U.S., according to FactSet. Applied Materials derives about 9% of its revenue from the U.S., while Nvidia is at about 16%. To be sure, many semiconductor companies sell chips and equipment to other manufacturers for use in products such as smartphones that ultimately end up being sold back in the U.S. , blurring the line on what their end markets are. What's not in doubt is that chip stocks have underperformed the broader market in 2022, even with the U.S. government pledging long-term support for the industry in the Chips and Science Act . One notable company on the list outside of semiconductors is Booking Holdings . The travel stock only gets about 13% of its revenue inside the U.S., and the strong dollar may be one of the reasons that the stock is underperforming the S & P 500 this year even as global travel rebounds. For example, Booking reported a 38% increase in gross bookings in the second quarter but said that would have been 48% on a constant-currency basis. Auto parts supplier BorgWarne r has also struggled in 2022 and generates just 17% of its revenue from the U.S. The company's revenues are split relatively evenly between Europe, North America and Asia, according to its latest financial results. BorgWarner recently completed the acquisition of small charging company Rhombus Energy Solutions, which could boost its North America exposure in the years ahead as electric vehicles become more widespread. Meanwhile, health care company Organon has a women's health business that gets most of its sales in the U.S., but many of the other drugs in its portfolio are primarily sold internationally. Two companies on the list that have dramatically outperformed the market this year are chemical company Albemarle and energy supplier Schlumberger . Global commodities are almost always priced in dollars, even for international transactions, so that may be helping these firms avoid negative currency impacts.