Why it’s time to pile into Italian stocks

As the euro crisis drags on, investors have sought the ‘safety’ of British and US gilts. But you’d be better off with the ‘mad’ option of European stocks, says John Stepek. Here, he tips the best ways to profit from a European recovery.

The outlook for the eurozone is deteriorating by the day. On the surface, the crisis is all about debt. But in reality, it's all about politics. While the eurozone's debts are significant, if tackled as a united whole, they could be dealt with. The problem is that the eurozone isn't a united whole it's a group of distinct nations. And even as the markets line up to pick them off one by one, they can't agree on how to split the bill.

On one side you have Germany, which doesn't want to let other countries off the hook too easily. While Spain this week called for help bailing out its banks, the Germans are reluctant to do so without an official request from the country, and the imposition of austerity conditions that this would involve.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.