What EU Meeting Means For Europe’s ETFs

Economic crisis is in the air, but Germany and the United Kingdom can’t agree on an approach, which would save the well-being of the markets and exchange traded funds (ETFs).

In Brussels, Belgium, there was a meeting of economic leaders looking for a stimulus plan all could agree upon to save the European Union. Stephen Beard for Marketplace reports that Germany thinks the British approach to the stimulus plan is crass, throwing around billions of pounds of public money in a futile attempt to refresh the economy.

Germany is equally critical of the plan for a $250 billion Europe-wide stimulus package. That doesn’t augur well for the E.U. summit. Meanwhile, German confidence fall to an all-time low, as investors are shy, and the European Central Bank is ready to cut rates again.

Either way, reports are now that EU leaders will be moving forward despite Germany’s reluctance, says Megan Williams for Marketplace.

Investor confidence in Germany is down for December, to minus 57 from minus 53.5 the prior month, reports Stanley White for Bloomberg. This is all relative to the German economy sinking up to 2.2% next year, and forecasts are that this will be Germany’s worst recession since World War II, reports Rainer Buergin for Bloomberg.

The US dollar was outrun by the euro in Thursday trading, which was caused by dim expectations in the US economy and a 26-year high jobless claim. The dollar index was down to 83.83 from 86.365, which is a measure of the “greenback” against other major trade weighted currencies, says Polya Lesova and William L. Watts for MarketWatch.The European Central Bank is expected to cut rates again, and fuel more gains in the euro against the dollar.

• iShares MSCI Germany Index (EWG): down 48.8% year-to-date

• NETS FTSE 100 Index (LDN): down 44% since April 10 inception

• iShares S&P Europe 350 Index Fund (IEV): down 46.4% year-to-date

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