Europe

European debt crisis talks have fallen into disarray as the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was charged with sexually assaulting a maid in a New York hotel.

The economies of the 17 countries in the single currency block grew 0.8% in the first three months of 2011, up from 0.3% in Q4, figures released today reveal.

Manager adopts three-pronged strategy including focus on contrarian bets in EM Europe

Markets across Europe fell at the start of trading as an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale hit Spain and commodities were heavily sold off in the US.

Schroders has unveiled an ISF Euro Credit Duration Hedged fund for head of UK and European credit strategies Adam Cordery.

S&P has downgraded Greece's credit rating by two notches on default fears, while Moody's and Fitch are also preparing to cut its further, according to reports.

Polar Capital's financials manager John Yakas is shunning the troubled Southern European banking sector in favour of ‘more transparent' emerging European banks.

Julius Baer's Andy Kastner is rotating his absolute return portfolio into defensive sectors including utilities and pharmaceuticals amid ongoing turmoil in European stock markets.

The European Central Bank is likely to hike interest rates just 25bp to 1.5% by the end of the year, as core inflation remains steady and has barely increased, said Alan Brown at Schroders.

With stronger than expected inflation readings in the eurozone, China and the US this month and the UK continuing to dramatically overshoot its inflation target, investors should be looking to protect their portfolios from the consequences of continued...