European Equities Compelling Amid Cheap Valuation, Underperformance

European equities received a surprise gift from the ECB in the form of an interest rate cut last week. This was some more icing on the cake, given that European stocks were already chalking up their fifth straight week of gains. However, Standard & Poor promptly rained on their parade by downgrading France’s credit rating from AA to AA+. As a result, stocks closed lower Friday. Nevertheless, market participants appeared to be happy with the gains clocked by European stocks this year; Pierre Mouton, a portfolio manager at a Swiss firm was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, “The ECB rate…