Europe not 'basket case': SVM's Cuthbert

EUROPE

It is too easy to dismiss Europe as the basket case of global equity markets, and recent money flows indicate this is precisely what has happened.

Year to date, net fund flows into international markets stand at $26.963bn, with emerging markets accounting for $12.832bn, while the comparable figure for Europe is minus $6.371bn (Source Bank of America Merrill Lynch, YTD 12 May 2010). Money is flowing towards the all-too-obvious emerging Far Eastern and South American markets where predictions of growth flow freely, and a paradigm shift is talked of where the balance of economic and political power is shifting from West to East. Such arguments to me are obvious and hence the massive shift in asset allocation. However, the most obvious...