Recovery has been slower to arrive in the European Union than in other advanced Western economies. The EU was three months later than the UK and US to place its first order for vaccines, and nearly a month late to approve a vaccine for use, leading to a late and slow roll out of its vaccination programme. Economic outcomes have followed suit, with EU GDP in 2021 Q1 well below its pre-COVID level, while the US economy had recovered nearly all its lost ground. But there are signs of improvement across the continent. Again, this is most obviously seen in

For much of the past decade deflation has been the bogey man of the U.S. and many other markets and this was true even as the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) began to unwind quantitative easing and nudge Fed funds away from zero in the closing months of 2016. But concerns pivoted in 2017 away from deflation towards a building threat of inflation reflecting the expectations – and ultimate reality – of a surge in U.S. deficit spending at the same time unemployment was dropping to record lows. The prospect of rising inflationary pressures is reflected in a roughly 1 percentage

As the final results for 2015 European earnings come in, companies in the STOXX 600 index are expected to have aggregate earnings growth of 6.7% for the full year 2015. This comes despite big declines in earnings in several sectors. Similar to the U.S., energy and materials companies struggled the most, with earnings declines of 50.6% and 13.3%, respectively. Revenue results have been weak as well, with energy sector sales declining 28.9%, leading to an aggregate revenue decline of 2.6% for 2015. Looking ahead to 2016, earnings for the STOXX 600 are expected to grow at a slower pace, as