The S&P Should Beat These Stocks Today
LONDON -- European equities have taken on a more positive note Tuesday, bolstered by better-than-expected German GDP data. The numbers from the Federal Statistics Office showed that GDP rose 0.3% from the first quarter, comparing favorably with analyst estimates of 0.1% to 0.2%. Markets also received a tailwind from the Asian session this morning after minutes were released showing that several Bank of Japan policymakers support stimulating the economy. Futures trading had the U.S. market showing slightly more muted gains than the European indexes, and the S&P 500 (INDEX: ^GSPC) has started the morning 0.3% higher.
With these gains, U.S. markets are on track to outperform a number of weaker European stocks. Here are three ADRs the S&P should beat today.
CRH (NYS: CRH)
The Irish concrete-product maker is down 7.1% as of writing, hit after it said on Monday that second-half like-for-like European sales will fall by more than the 5% drop seen in H1. At the same time, the company said like-for-like H2 sales in the Americas will be "well below" the 8% posted in the first half. CRH management blames the ongoing European debt crisis and the erosion of confidence for the weak performance on the continent.
Nokia (NYS: NOK)
The Finnish handset maker is continuing to pare some of last week's gains, down more than 6% as confidence in the struggling firm remains tentative at best. Profit-taking has been leading direction after the stock was buoyed last by news that Nokia will sell its Qt app-tools unit, bought in 2008 to develop applications for Symbian and MeeGo operating systems, to Digia. In recent months the company has moved away from these operating systems and instead focused on those of Microsoft, which will be featured in the Lumia phones that have been suffering dire sales this year.
Royal Bank of Scotland (ISE: RBS.L) (NYS: RBS)
The U.K. taxpayer-owned bank is down almost 1% in London as the country's financial sector sees ongoing concerns in the wake of the Standard Chartered scandal. Last week RBS's securities arm admitted that a manual error was behind a 0.6% jump in the euro versus the Swiss franc, while today the company announced it will hire a former managing director of Morgan Stanley to head up its global electronic trading team.
As usual, this morning's European trading saw some stocks lose ground -- and perhaps provide some European buying opportunities. Indeed, legendary investor Warren Buffett has recently spent more than $1 billion buying a European large-cap stock that's currently trading well below its 2012 high. If you want to know what Buffett has bought within Europe, this special Motley Fool report -- "The One European Share Warren Buffett Loves" -- reveals everything, including the price he paid. You can download the report today for free, but hurry -- the report is available for a limited time only.
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