Europe - Stocks (General News)

[winston]

Grexit

If a default happens, it looks to be catastrophic for the Greek markets, at least in the near term.

While it might help to promote long term growth (eventually), the short term pain could be quite severe and especially if we use the Global X FTSE Greece 20 ETF (GREK) as a proxy.

This fund was down over 15% in Monday trading on extremely heavy volume while it has been having a horrendous 2015 as well.

In fact, since the start of the year the Greek ETF has lost over one-fourth of its value while the S&P 500 has remained more or less flat in the same time frame.

Source: Yahoo Finance

[winston]

Here’s How to Trade Greece Stocks Amid Grexit Fears

European ETFs have actually outperformed the S&P YTD

By Jeff Reeves

Source: Investor Place

http://investorplace.com/2015/07/greece ... ZufFNKqqko

[winston]

European Stocks to Buy When Europe Bounces Back

Greece's turmoil presents buying opportunities for European stocks

By Charles Sizemore

http://investorplace.com/2015/07/europe ... Z-Ch9Kqqko

[behappyalways]

Greek shares plunge on first day of market reopen
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33754005

[winston]

Why You Should "Buy Uncertainty" in Europe By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud

I'm going to let you in on a major moneymaking secret…

It's one of the best I know. It has consistently made me money in all types of markets and all types of investments. If you get it right, it almost always works.

Here it is: BUY UNCERTAINTY.

Let me explain…

Buying uncertainty isn't all there is to it. That on its own can actually be dangerous… The ideal setup is when uncertainty is CLEARLY changing to certainty.

It could be the passing of a law, a weather event, or a political change. The possible setups are endless. You just need uncertainty clearly changing to certainty.

You can see exactly what I mean by looking at European stocks last month… The situation in Greece simply moved from uncertain to "less uncertain" when Greece submitted a bailout plan, and European stocks moved up 5% in a day. Take a look:

The gains won't stop here. The situation in Europe will continue to move from "uncertainty" to "certainty" as the terms of Greece's bailout unfold – and that should be great for European stocks.

Meanwhile, European stocks are a great deal right now… If you've missed the stock boom in the U.S. since 2009, you are in luck with Europe… You get another chance at it.

You see, the U.S. is further along in its recovery than Europe is. So the zero-interest-rate policy in the U.S. will be going away at some point soon. But that's not the case in Europe.

Interest rates will stay near zero in Europe for a while… and that should fuel a U.S.-style boom in European stocks and property.

Also, importantly, European stocks are not nearly as expensive as U.S. stocks…

The Euro STOXX 50 Index – the Dow Jones of Europe that holds 50 of the area's strongest companies – is a good value, particularly in our zero-interest-rate world. The table below shows its valuations versus the S&P 500's…

Valuations Euro STOXX 50 S&P 500
Price-to-Earnings Ratio (2016) 14.2 16
Price-to-Sales Ratio 1.1 1.9
Price-to-Book Value 1.6 2.9
Dividend Yield 3.4% 2.0%

The Euro STOXX 50 is made up of household names including Daimler (Mercedes-Benz), Bayer (aspirin), Total (a French oil and gas company), and Anheuser-Busch InBev (yes, the beer brewer is not American).

A crisis in Greece isn't going to dramatically affect the sales of Mercedes-Benz cars or Busch beer. Meanwhile, this crisis has created plenty of UNCERTAINTY in Europe, and that gives us a window of opportunity.

We have one of the great setups that I like to see… Europe is going from uncertainty to certainty. That should continue over the coming months. And it makes European stocks a great opportunity today.

Source: Daily Wealth

[winston]

Best ETFs: WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (HEDJ)

Provides: Europe With a Twist
Expenses: 0.58%

It pays to have at least some exposure to European equities (and other international stocks, for that matter), simply because the U.S. isn’t always going to win the day.

And investors usually get that exposure through funds like the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK) or the iShares MSCI Eurozone ETF (EZU).

However, the most popular ETF as of right now is one that puts a little spin on the region — the WisdomTree Europe Hedged Equity Fund (HEDJ).

The HEDJ, like VGK and EZU, is invested mostly in large-cap companies from developed European countries, sporting holdings like Spain’s Telefonica (TEF) and Belgium’s Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD).

However, HEDJ’s strategy is somewhat unique in that it attempts to hedge against a weak/weakening euro by investing mostly in companies that derive a significant portion of their revenues from overseas.

That strategy has absolutely killed it over the past year — a 52-week span in which the euro has gone from being worth roughly $1.33 to about $1.10 currently. Investors in the HEDJ have enjoyed 19% gains in that time, while the VGK has essentially stayed flat.

This is far from a strategy you can sit on and forget about, but considering that the Federal Reserve will likely increase interest rates sometime before 2015’s out, and considering that Europe is likely to continue with its stimulus measures, a strong-dollar environment should endure. That makes HEDJ one of the best ETFs you can use to supercharge the international portion of your portfolio.

Source: Investor Place

[winston]

Greek Stocks Are Down 60% Since Last Summer. Time to Buy? By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud

Greek stocks are down 60% since their peak last summer…

It's hard to find investments that are down that far in price… U.S. stocks are up hundreds of percent since bottoming in 2009. U.S. real estate is coming back strong. And the U.S. dollar has soared.

So is it time to speculate in Greek stocks?

In short, the answer is NO, it's not time to buy – yet.

Today, I'll tell you why I'm not buying right now… I'll also tell you what will finally cause me to buy… possibly early in 2016…

Six months ago, I told you NOT to buy Greek stocks…

Greek stocks had lost nearly 50% of their value in less than a year, and investors were getting excited… The main Greek stock fund – the Global X FTSE Greece 20 Fund (GREK) – had fallen from around $25 per share to around $14 per share, and investors started buying it up like crazy.

The blue line below shows the dramatic increase in buyers in GREK. The blue line is the shares outstanding. This was a sign that buying Greece was WAY TOO POPULAR. Take a look:

Everyone was buying Greece back then… The thing is, everyone can't be a contrarian at the same time – then you're not a contrarian!

As you can see, Greek stocks have continued their slide over the past six months. GREK is down from around $14 per share to around $10 per share.

The crazy part is, investors continue to pile in…

The shares outstanding of GREK are up dramatically since I wrote that essay.

Another way of looking at how popular Greek stocks are is to check out the Google Trends search results on "Greek stocks" through the end of July (the last complete month of results)…

As you can see below, Greek stocks are more popular than ever!

In short, Greek stocks have fallen a lot… The main Greek fund is down from a high of around $25 per share last year to around $10 per share today.

Greek stocks may be a great buy someday soon… but today is not that day! The trade is still way too popular…

The big money is made when you buy something that is completely out of favor… once it starts to show signs of an uptrend.

Greece doesn't tick either of those boxes today.

So don't buy Greece yet…

Source: www.dailywealth.com

[winston]

Big Spanish bank Banco Santander falls to a new 52-week low.

[winston]

One of the Best Opportunities When the Market Recovers By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud

It's a scary time to buy stocks…

Markets around the world are breaking down. But as we've written recently (here and here), this volatility is likely overdone. And it's creating real opportunities.

Most investors are focused on the U.S. today. But one of the biggest opportunities isn't at home… It's in Europe.

Let me explain…

Yes, stocks have been volatile, and we have hit some stop losses… But looking at the bigger picture, European stocks are a fantastic opportunity – an even better one than U.S. stocks.

U.S. stocks have gone up for six straight years. And they're only down 4% in 2015 after the recent fall. European stocks haven't gone up nearly as much…

Europe's major blue-chip index – the Euro STOXX 50 Index – was up in just three of the last six years. And it's down again this year.

Take a look…

The S&P 500 is up around 65% over the past decade (not including dividends). The Euro STOXX 50 Index is down 8% over the decade (not including dividends and in U.S. dollar terms).

This incredible divergence in performance has made Europe's stock market cheap. Take a look…

Index Price-to-Book Price-to-Sales Div. Yield
S&P 500 2.6 1.7 2.2%
Euro STOXX 50 1.4 0.9 3.8%
Discount -46% -47% -42%

European stocks are more than 40% cheaper than U.S. stocks when you look at some major value metrics, including price-to-book, price-to-sales, and dividend yield.

Looking back over 30 years of historical data, whenever European stocks were 40%-plus cheaper than U.S. stocks, European stocks outperformed U.S. stocks over the next year, three years, and five years.

In short, we want to own European stocks when the uptrend returns. The eurozone economy is the world's largest… and yet its stock market is an incredible deal relative to U.S. stocks.

When I look at Europe today, I see the U.S. a few years ago…

Here in the U.S., unemployment is down, stocks are up, and the economy is slowly ticking higher. Because of that, we're on the verge of higher interest rates from the Federal Reserve. But not in Europe…

Earlier this year, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi put Europe's own quantitative easing (QE) program into place. Europe's central bank is just now starting the money-printing process in hopes of igniting the area's economy.

Of course, this will lead to increases in asset prices, like we saw happen in the U.S.

Europe's stock and property markets will likely soar in response to this program. And higher interest rates won't appear in Europe for years.

European stocks should be a fantastic opportunity, particularly when the uptrend returns.

Source: Daily Wealth

[winston]

Perfect Time to Snag a Piece of Europe

By Martin Hutchinson

Source: Wall Street Daily

http://www.thetradingreport.com/2015/09 ... of-europe/