European equities have historically struggled to ignite the kind of investor enthusiasm enjoyed by U.S. stocks and certain fast-growing Asian markets. The continent has fewer high-growth companies, shallower capital markets and is thought to have a less compelling long-term earnings growth story.
A spike in governments' fiscal spending at the beginning of 2025, however, brought the market to life. This year, the story is more nuanced, but the pan-European Stoxx 600 index has proved remarkably resilient.
Europe's headline index tracks 600 large, medium, and small capitalization companies across 17 European countries, and is essentially the continent's equivalent of the S&P 500. The Stoxx 600 is up 10% in 2026 so far, slightly behind its North American counterpart, which has returned 13.5% over the same period.
European markets tend to fly under the radar when compared with larger and more liquid U.S. markets, but Goldman Sachs last week attempted to dispel some of the "myths" about investing in Europe.
