Banks like higher yields, and the second-best performer in terms of contribution to overall index movement this morning was Deutsche Bank, up 3.5% after German bond yields rose 4 basis points. The top contribution to index movement was BNP-Paribas, up 2.15%.
Banks are the best bet among European stocks: they don’t care much about the rising Euro, and they like higher interest rates, unlike some of the industrials. Europe has lived with negative interest rates (up to the 7-year maturity in the case of Germany’s government bond market) for the past three years, an unsustainable circumstance in a country of savers. That will be eliminated some time during 2018. The combination of higher rates and stronger growth is a winning combination for European banks.