|
|
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index gained another 0.2 percent on 13 August to notch its 10th consecutive record high in as many sessions, a record unmatched since at least 1990, the Financial Times reported.
Consumer and financial stocks led gainers.
Earnings reports on the continent so far have averaged 11 percent above expectations, according to Goldman Sachs data; more than half of companies reporting have surpassed predictions by at least 5 percent, the FT said.
After 2008, amid the Great Recession, Europe’s earnings per share needed 11 years to return to pre-crash levels; “now earnings are easily above” 2019’s peak, Goldman Sachs’ European strategist Sharon Bell told the FT.
“Europe has had no banking crisis, no debt crisis” during the COVID War, she noted. “European equities have done just as well as the U.S. this year.” (See “European Union’s Recovery Outlook Improves,” Trends Journal, 16 February, 2021.)
TREND FORECAST: Europe imposed severe, long-lasting lockdowns in 2020 and several countries were slow to lift them this year.
And now, as we have detailed in this and other Trends Journals, with a slew of vaccine passport rules that limit business and an array of travel restrictions that will cripple the already slowing tourist sector, we forecast an economic downturn, not an uptick, in the Eurozone.