Today’s action in stocks saw more of the same buying pressure that we’ve seen since the beginning of September. U.S. stocks have been up big of late and, since falling to its August lows, the S&P 500 Index is up about 13%. That’s impressive, but not as much as the performance of stocks in the emerging markets.

Stocks in this ultra fast-paced market segment are getting so fat with gains that they have been bursting at the virtual seams, as you clearly can see by the chart below. Since hitting its August low, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index Fund (EEM) has surged 18.5%. The fund now is trading at multi-year highs, and right about where it traded way back in June 2008 -- before the global meltdown kicked in.

Nearly as impressive a recent run can be seen in Chinese stocks, with the iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI) now up 17% from its August low.

So, what’s the explanation for the recent gains in emerging markets and China? The bottom line is growth expectations. While the United States is expected to see gross domestic product (GDP) growth of around 2% in 2011, emerging markets are expected to grow about 6.5% next year. That’s a whopping difference, and it’s definitely enough of a reason to explain the flight of capital into the hottest emerging markets.

According to research firm EPFR Global, investors put some $6 billion into emerging market equity funds during the first week of October. This was the best week for emerging market fund inflows since late 2007, and the second best week on record, according to EPFR.

Money always seeks the highest returns, and right now, emerging markets feature those high returns.

Currently, investors following my Successful Investing advisory service are holding some hefty emerging market gains. If you’d like to find out how you, too, can ride the emerging market wave, then check out Successful Investing today.