Barr's new capital requirements for banks is 'a bit more' than expected, says Wells Fargo's Mayo (youtube.com)
This made bank stocks go down. That there had been an expectation in the market that banks would get an even lower threshold.
Buybacks. Record year, looks like. Uncertainty, corporate tax rate, no good buying opportunities. Could be a cushion for these companies to come in. 60% of European companies buying back shares, compared with 20% historically. No one is buying European stocks. People are piling into Asia-Pacific, EM, and fluctuating in US.
Europe has very few new companies. No big companies are new (all like 50 years old, unlike US). EU specialized in mature techs, spend less on R&D. Innovation in EU? Europe has lots of regulation, and this makes them feel safe maybe, but it means that when someone wants to do something new, they do it somewhere else. Mostly they go to the US. EU ‘leading tech’ is car companies.