Since the end of 2007, European equities have underperformed US equities by 63% on a real total return basis (in local currency terms).
Over the same period, European real local currency earnings per share declined by only 52% relative to their US counterparts - this divergence really started to occur in 2011 as the eurozone crisis broke out. Since then, European companies have seen their earnings decline by 21%, which compares to a 14% increase in the US. It was not until mid-2016 that the European Central Bank's (ECB) aggressive monetary policy started to bear fruit with a recovery in company revenues. WisdomTree's Nossek: Can the European small-cap recovery continue? 2017 was the first year of positive earning...
To continue reading this article...
Join Investment Week for free
- Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
- Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
- Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
- Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
- Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes