According to the WSJ, the euro, European stocks, bank shares and “peripheral” euro-zone sovereign bonds all suffered as funds moved into the safety of the dollar and assets like German bunds following the weekend elections in France.
French voters elected Socialist Party candidate François Hollande as president. Hollande has pledged to shift the economic hardship onto the rich and soften austerity measures.
French stocks anticipated the election results, underperfoming the S&P 500 since the beginning of the year. The MSCI French Index Fund (EWQ) is flat year-to-date in 2012 compared to an 8% gain for SPY over the same time period.
Top holdings for EWQ include Total SA, Sanofi, LVMH Moet Hennessy, Danone and BNP Paribas. The expense ratio for the $270 million ETF is 0.52%.
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– ETF MarketPro Staff
May 7, 2012