Europe

Investors remained focused on risk assets throughout much of February, in spite of sharp reminders that the economic backdrop still offers plenty of challenges to growth. As winter storms blew across North America, uncertainty and volatility returned to financial markets over the course of February, as the outcome of the Italian election campaign reminded investors [...]

This research note is provided by Fathom Consulting. All of the charts below and many many more, covering a range of topics and countries on both the macroeconomy and financial markets are available in the Chartbook to Datastream users at www.datastream.com. Alternatively you can access Fathom’s Chartbook at www.fathom-consulting.com. As we highlighted in last month’s [...]

The British pound fell below $1.50 for the first time since 2010 last Friday one week after Moody’s stripped the UK government of its prized triple-A credit rating. Sterling has had a torrid 2013, as investors have sold sterling on the back of domestic weaknesses, stubbornly high inflation and a still-large fiscal deficit. Absent a [...]

A dire set of Q4 GDP data showed that much of the euro area was either in recession, or heading in that direction. This week’s COTW takes a look at how individual economies have fared since the introduction of the common currency. Despite their recent crises, Ireland and Spain stand out as the big winners [...]

This research note is provided by Fathom Consulting. All of the charts below and many many more, covering a range of topics and countries on both the macroeconomy and financial markets are available in the Chartbook to Datastream users at www.datastream.com. Alternatively you can access Fathom’s Chartbook at www.fathom-consulting.com. Introduction Downbeat growth figures from Europe [...]

Lucent’s name became synonymous with great technological innovation when it acquired Bell Labs in the 1990s, but even the Alcatel-Lucent (created by the company’s 2006 merger with French telecom industry heavyweight Alcatel) has struggled to parlay innovation into profits in recent years, and a tentative return to profitability in 2011 appears to have been doomed [...]

Investors threw themselves into “risk-on” investments at the start of the new year, although the odds of greater volatility and uncertainty remain high. After a wary and uncertain end to 2012, investors celebrated the advent of 2013 by once again embracing the concept of risk. They seized on respectable if not dramatic gains in corporate [...]

Frontier markets offer less certainty and liquidity than developed or even emerging markets. For some, the safety of dividends softens this uncertainty, but focuses the portfolio on financial stocks, as with the WisdomTree Middle East Dividend Fund (GULF). While not liquid, GULF represents a cheaper valuation than the Thomson Reuters Global Index, using StarMine analytics. [...]

After a welcome boost from the Olympics, the UK ended 2012 on a disappointing note, contracting by 0.3% in Q4. We expect the UK economy will return to positive, if weak growth in 2013. While a fresh approach to monetary policy offers hope, unless banks can be encouraged to write down their bad debts, and [...]

If you’re thinking of investing in European stocks this year, you might want to direct your attention to the UK, France, Germany and Switzerland: the region’s largest countries by market cap are where companies are likely to post the biggest gains in earnings. Although Ireland also looks appealing on the surface, there is execution risk, [...]