European Stock Markets on All-Time Roll Despite Economic Bleakness

There has been so much clamour over the past few months relating to the flagging European economy and stagnating British economy compared to the surprisingly healthy economic situation in the United States that it would be very easy to get buried in the deluge of news articles displaying woe which have been accompanied by a rising US Dollar against a declining Euro and Pound.

However, to write off the European economy as second fiddle to that of the United States purely on the grounds of a rising Dollar, some return to form for tech stocks and a relatively mediocre set of meeting notes from the Federal Open Market Committee, which reiterated the lack of a reduction in interest rates for the near future, would be churlish, to say the least.

On the European side of the Atlantic, a more thorough inspection of the overall market conditions would soon put the flagging Euro and mainstream media speculation of recession into perspective.

Over the past few weeks, European stocks have been increasing in value to the extent that some indices have registered an all-time high.

The CAC 40 index in France concluded the European session yesterday at 7,960.8 according to FXOpen charts, which is an all-time record high for the index, which comprises the 40 most highly capitalised stocks listed on French stock exchanges.

This all-time high has been achieved following a rally which began in mid-January, showing that investor confidence in this particular index is contrary to the overall pessimism surrounding the economic strength of the Eurozone compared to other regions of major commercial importance.

This morning, the French index began at a slightly lower value than yesterday's high, with 7,925.6 displayed by FXOpen charts at 9,00am UK time.

Overall, however, this is still a very high value compared to any period in the history of the exchange prior to the record-setting activity of the past week.

There is an interesting dichotomy between the suppressed overall Eurozone economy and the high values being reached by certain European indices, as France's CAC 40 is not alone in this rallying direction, leading to all-time highs. There are other European indices registering equally strong rallies whilst the overall economy stagnates in the background.

Opinions vary with regard to the reason for this, however, one perhaps tenuous explanation is that there is a strong demand for European luxury goods in other regions of the world, such as South East Asia and the Middle East, meaning that sales of products by French companies to customers outside of Europe could be leading to strong company performance despite the local population reining in their spending.

Luxury goods manufacturers are not exclusive to France, of course, but some of the world's most prestigious luxury brands are indeed French, one example being LMVH, which owns some of the most well-recognized luxury goods manufacturers in all sectors, including fashion, clothing, cosmetics, wines, watches, perfumes, and jewellery, and French products in these sectors carry huge amounts of prestige across global markets.

LVMH is just one example. However, it is an important one as it is the largest and most highly capitalised company in the entire Eurozone with a value of over $5oo billion.

Today's market is a global one, and the strength of European stocks is testimony to this.