Weekly Market Commentary

BUY JAPAN, HOLD U.S., SELL EUROPE

Jeffrey Buchbinder, CFA, Chief Equity Strategist
Jeffrey Roach, PhD, Chief Economist

Recent data suggests economic conditions in Europe are deteriorating, removing a key element of LPL Research’s positive view of the attractively valued developed international equities asset class. Previous U.S. dollar weakness and strong earnings momentum, which were other key reasons why we became more interested in European investing earlier this year, have reversed and suggest looking elsewhere for investment opportunities. Another international market to consider is Japan, which is also attractively valued with better fundamentals than Europe, in our view.