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“Europe’s economy is strengthening and the region stands at the crossroads of integration or fragmentation,” Bart van Ark, executive vice president, chief economist and chief strategy officer of The Conference Board told the Europe Investment Forum, hosted by STOXX Limited in New York City, today.
“Equity and bond markets in Europe are benefitting from the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing policy. The weaker euro is also a positive, but there is a limit to how much Europe can thrive on accelerated exports,” Van Ark said.
The Europe Investment Forum was the first hosted by STOXX - a leading provider of innovative, tradable and global index concepts - to offer insights into the surging interest from US investors in European equities.
“It is an opportune time for US investors to consider Europe as a place to invest, and we are pleased to host our first European Investment Forum,” said Hartmut Graf, chief executive officer, STOXX Ltd. “Eurozone growth has resumed recently with equities in the common-currency area outperforming US equities.”
Graf added: “We were the first company to launch an index for the Eurozone ahead of the euro currency being launched. Today, the EURO STOXX 50 Index is known and used around the world as the benchmark for Eurozone equities. At end of April 2015, assets under management in 39 ETFs based on the EURO STOXX 50 Index reached 34.8 billion euros. That’s just about a third more than assets under management of 26.1 billion euros at the end of April, 2014.”
In addition to the outlook on Europe’s economy presented by Van Ark, the Europe Investment Forum also included a panel discussion about how to invest in Europe. The panel was moderated by Tony Mace , executive editor, at MNI News. The panelists included:
- Terence Digan, director of institutional sales, ALPS Portfolio Solutions
- Kevin Kelly, managing partner & CIO, Recon Capital Partners
- David B. Mazza, vice president, head of research, SPDR ETFs and State Street Global Advisors Funds
KEY FIGURES ON VARIOUS BENCHMARKS FOR EUROPE COMPARED WITH THE S&P 500 AND THE DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
15-YEAR HISTORICAL KEY FIGURES1)
|
Return (annualized) |
Volatility (annualized) |
Maximum drawdown |
Gross dividend yield |
|
| EURO STOXX 50 | 2.8% | 26.9% | 63.5% | 3.5% |
| DAX | 5.2% | 26.7% | 61.6% | 2.8% |
| STOXX Europe 50 | 2.8% | 23.5% | 61.6% | 3.5% |
| STOXX Europe 600 | 5.2% | 22.6% | 62.8% | 3.3% |
| DJIA | 5.9% | 18.5% | 51.8% | 2.5% |
| S&P 500 | 5.2% | 20.0% | 55.3% | 2.0% |
POST ECB QE KEY FIGURES2)
|
Return (annualized) |
Volatility (annualized) |
Maximum drawdown |
Gross dividend yield |
|
| EURO STOXX 50 | 23.6% | 18.9% | 6.2% | 3.1% |
| DAX | 24.2% | 19.0% | 5.9% | 2.8% |
| STOXX Europe 50 | 24.9% | 15.2% | 5.4% | 5.7% |
| STOXX Europe 600 | 27.5% | 14.3% | 5.1% | 4.9% |
| DJIA | 2.4% | 13.8% | 4.1% | 2.1% |
| S&P 500 | 6.0% | 12.8% | 3.6% | 2.0% |
(Source: STOXX, Bloomberg data for USD Gross Return and Total Return versions (1) From Dec. 29, 2000 to Apr. 30, 2015 (2) From Dec. 30, 2014 to Apr. 30, 2015)
