source: Thomson Reuters
With all of the hand wringing about European earnings/economy, the facts are that they are UP year on year. So far Q4 2018 earnings (of those reported) are up 4.8% and revenues are up 4.4%. One factor that has helped the European components of the Stoxx 600 so far is the fact that the US Dollar was stronger against the Euro in Q4 2018 than it was in Q4 2017 (by ~5%).
It is this SAME factor that has US companies only reporting 56% of companies beating on the revenue side for Q4. While European companies had a currency tailwind in Q4 2018, US companies had a currency headwind.
