Emerging stock markets are generally held to have the highest growth potential in the future. Their economies are generally in better debt/GDP shape than the aggregate developed stock market countries. Their GDP growth rates have been, are currently, and are expected to be higher than aggregate developed stock market countries.

The total return history of emerging markets for 20, 10, 5, 3 and 1 years shows emerging markets to have generated higher returns than the US or non-US developed markets, although with higher volatility.

Forex or foreign exchange tends to be a volatile market where anything can happen. With the volatility comes a variety of opinions, and with opinions come investment and trading. The EUR/USD happens to be the most traded currency pair. So, let’s take a look at where the majority of high end banks see the euro go against its archenemy – the United States dollar. Digesting the picture we see the following projections from the leading banks:

Below is a chart showing the percentage of companies in the US that have beaten earnings estimates as earnings season has progressed. An interesting divergence has taken place over the past two weeks. The percentage of all US companies that have beaten earnings estimates this season has drifted lower throughout the reporting period, dropping from 77% on July 16th to its current level of 68.5%. But the percentage of S&P 500 companies that have beaten earnings estimates has remained steady in the high 70s.

This week the beat rate for the S&P 500 has increased from 78% to 79%, while it has decreased about two percentage points for the entire US market. So while the smaller cap companies that have reported recently haven't done so well, the large caps continue to come in strong.