Break-In...Spain

I said back in April after my trip to Spain that the country "has the feel of the US back in 2011 when things here felt like they were starting to get better".  Today we had the latest batch of economic numbers out of Spain {Purchasing Managers Index or PMI} and they blew the number away, coming in at 59.7 versus the 55.5 that was expected.  Of particular note to me though is that Spain's services sector saw the fastest hiring in eight years. 

Why I think this is important enough to point out is that to me this is further evidence that European economies are improving as their own version of Quantitative Easing {QE} takes hold.  That then should make their stock markets attractive going forward and should backstop in the near term declines in markets over there absent some unexpected event.  All eyes in Europe this year have been focused on Greece but maybe they should be focusing on countries like Spain instead.

*Long ETFs related to Europe in client and personal accounts although positions can change at any time.

Link:  Business Insider, "The Spanish Economy Just Blew Analyst Expectations Out of the Water.