Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Disappointing Retail Sales in Europe

In spite of optimistic forecasts that retail sales in Europe would rise nearly 1% from a year prior, October data released today showed a slight decline for the second month in a row:

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While full details are not yet available, the non-food products category posted the largest drop (-0.6%yoy) and all but three countries (Sweden, France, and Finland) in MSCI Europe reported contractions in sales versus October of 2012:

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European Consumer Discretionary companies have been the best performers over the last four years, but that momentum is slowing:

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Some of the best performing sub-industries and their constituents have begun to struggle over the last month or so:

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