Out Fox The $treet

My understanding is that Germans are not as heavily invested into the stock market as the US, but a 15% drop in you countries main market index surely catches the attention of politicians. From the chart below, the majority of the loss took place in the just the first part of August when the index plunged from around 7,200 to 5,600. Some might doubt the willingness of Germany to bailout the Southern Europeans, but such moves suggest they have more incentives than most people would think.

So much for the government debt issue in Europe keeping the Germans down. Earlier this morning, Germany reported a huge jump in investor sentiment. The index jumped over 15 and was much better then the expected 6.8 points. Though expectations for exports are slightly weaker in 2011, the private sector is expected to grow nicely. In reality, a jump in investor sentiment shouldn't be that surprising with the DAX jumping all the way back to 2008 highs. The market is booming yet analysts estimates still appear constrained and out of tune with the facts. Whats amazing is that the US markets such as the SP500 remain nearly 300 points below its all time high back in October 2007. Will the US eventually catch up? Via CNBC : The Mannheim-based ZEW think tank said on Tuesday its monthly index jumped to 15.4 points from 4.3 in December. KEY DATA GERMANY JAN DEC economic sentiment 15.4 4.3 current conditions 82.8 82.6 Economists had expected the economic sentiment reading to rise to 6...