Europe Stocks: From Euphoric to Just Enviable as 2015 Gain Fades
- Stoxx 600 has best year in a decade versus U.S. benchmark
- Profit growth, monetary policy to spur further outperformance
This article is for subscribers only.
European stocks have just accomplished something they’ve done only once in five years -- beat their U.S. counterparts. It’s a vindication of sorts for investors and local strategists, whose bullish estimates of how far Mario Draghi would push equities in 2015 proved too optimistic.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 6.8 percent last year, less than half its average annual return since global equities bottomed in 2009 and falling short of the 14 percent gain forecast by banks and brokerages a year ago. At the same time, viewed against what was available in equities elsewhere, it was the best showing in a decade.