A market-capitalization-weighted index maintained by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) and designed to provide a broad measure of stock performance throughout the world, with the exception of U.S.-based companies. The MSCI All Country World Index Ex-U.S. includes both developed and emerging markets. |||For investors who benchmark their U.S. and international stocks separately, this index provides a way to monitor international exposure apart from U.S. investments. In August of 2008, the MSCI ACWI Ex-U.S. held 23 countries classified as developed markets and 25 classified as emerging markets.