Today we are featuring top-performing "European" equity mutual funds, which primarily invest in equity securities of companies based in Europe.

Investors can find such funds by checking out the entire list of Zacks #1 Rank European Equity Funds.

3 Solid Samples

ING European Real Estate Fund A (IAERX) seeks to provide investors with high total return, consisting of capital appreciation and current income. It was incepted in November 2007.

The fund normally invests at least 80% of net assets in a portfolio of equity securities of real estate companies located in Europe. The fund may invest in convertible securities, initial public offering and depositary receipts.

The fund has an expense ratio of 1.75%. As of July 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 166%.

Steven D. Burton has been lead manager of the fund since November 2007. Burton is a managing director at ING and has 24 years investment experience.

T. Rowe Price European Stock

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I very much enjoyed this book review by Gerard DeGroot published in Sunday's Washington Post on Michael Meyer's new book on the fall of the Berlin Wall.  It never fails to impress me how much our ideas about this recent period in history continue to inform (or more aptly, misinform) our understanding of contemporary politics and relations with Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union.  Apparently Michael Meyer's book pokes some holes in the traditional hero myths, and points to the accidental and chaotic nature of how all these world-changing events spun out of control.  Very interesting and thoughtful stuff here.The events themselves were played out by a cast of thousands in Budapest, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw and Bucharest. There was no script; this was an improvisational drama conceived by Camus, with help from Kafka and Molière. The Soviet Union came ...

Manas Petroleum Corp., the Swiss-based international oil exploration and development company, stands out in its cost-sensitive approach to acquiring land positions in major oil basins around the world. The Manas strategy is to acquire and farm-out the holdings to partners, with those partners paying all costs until commercial production is undertaken. This approach allows Manas to retain substantial carried interests, maximizing potential growth while significantly reducing financial costs and risk. An additional element of the strategy is diversification, which further reduces risk.

One area of focus for the company is the exploration and development of giant hydrocarbon assets in the former Soviet Union or its satellites. Although Soviet exploration and development technologies were decades behind those of the West, their record keeping of geological results was excellent. These records indicate the existence of numerous and large un-drilled structures with potential oil. In areas where drilling did occur, such as the

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The greenback surges on an confidence from an unlikely ally,  686 billion reasons for Japan not to laugh at the U.S. dollar’s fate,  Lessons from the political obituaries and plenty more…

Hoorah! The dollar is saved! How do we know? The Russian finance minister told us so!

The dollar is in “good shape” according to Alexei Kudrin, who cautioned the Group of Eight conference in Lecce, Italy, over the weekend that, “It’s too early to speak of an alternative [to the U.S. dollar].”

Even politicians from the Former Soviet Union have the right to their opinion, of course, just as we reserve the right to disrespectfully disagree. And, so it appears, do other members of the same, somewhat confused Rusky government. A few days before Kudrin was heard drumming up support for his unlikely ally at the G8 roundtable, Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev joined China’s central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan

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This Financial Times editorial came across my email alerts last night, reminding us that somewhere along the line either the U.S. government or the media or both came up with this mythic assumption that talking to Russia about security issues became mutually exclusive from any discussion on values.  The whole "sphere of influences" topic is quickly rising as the #1 problem between Russia and the United States - and, as pointed out by this editorial, Mr. Obama's July trip could easily be ruined by an "unexpected incident" in these unstable regions.

But the real test of the Obama approach to Russia will come in how the US responds to Moscow's claims for primacy in its "near abroad", the former Soviet Union. Washington has postponed talk of soon bringing Ukraine

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The ruble has reached its highest level in two and a half months against its basket currency.  Sberbank CEO German Gref says that Russia will see a 'certain stabilization this March-April'.  VTB is to take a 75% minus one share stake in crisis-hit Dynamo football club.  Diamond producer Alrosa has said it will cut production by one-fifth this year.  A group of consumer cooperatives has announced that it plans to merge into one large company, with help from state banks.  Rosneft has repaid a $577 million loan to VEB more than six months in advance.  The Guinean Justice Ministry will contemplate legal action over Rusal's acquisition of Friguia bauxite and alumina complex.  The tender for the development of the Big Ussuri Island bridge has been won by Moscow's Financial-Organisational Consulting.  Norilsk Nickel may sells ...

Nervy investors spur rush at Swiss gold refiners

By Arnd Wiegmann and Lisa Jucca

 http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSLI46181820081217?sp=true

MENDRISIO/ZURICH, Switzerland, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Sealed off by grey concrete walls and barbed wire, the workmen in protective glasses and steel-toed boots at this smelter cannot work fast enough to meet demand from the nervous rich for gold.

This refinery near Lake Lugano in the Alps is running day and night as people worried about recession rush to switch their assets into something that may hold its value.

“I have been in the gold business for 30 years and I have never experienced anything like this,” said Bernhard Schnellmann, director for precious metal services at the refiner Argor-Heraeus, one of the world’s three largest.

“Production has dramatically increased since the middle of the year. We cannot cope with demand,” said Schnellman, wearing a gold watch on his wrist.

Spot gold hit a record $1,030.80 an

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By Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /Russia's foreign-exchange reserves have been now been declining very rapidly since mid August, and as the money goes so does the faith that the large stock of reserves the country built up during the boom times would be sufficient to see them through any downturn in energy prices. As the money leaves, so it seems does the decade of economic growth and stability which they symbolised. Indeed so rapid has been the decline that Russia's international reserves, which are the third-biggest after those of China and Japan, have now fallen $161 billion, or 27% percent, since 8 August last, and decreased by $17.9 billion to $437 billion in the week to 5 December. Investors have now pulled $211 billion out of the country since August, according to estimates by BNP Paribas.br /br /br /pa href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ngczZkrw340/SUbQptNe4tI/AAAAAAAALyE/K0xlBOy3AlA/s1600-h/russia+GDP.png"img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5280137028067844818" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: ...

City fashion is a dangerous thing. Its followers rarely come out smiling. So although there is a chorus now calling for mergers and acquisitions in the small company sector, this seems more to do with fund managers’ concerns about illiquid stocks than any commercial rationale.

But still, the merger of two small AIM–listed resource stocks Victoria Oil & Gas (VOG) and Bramlin (BML)may be more than just a case of two drunks leaning on each other for support. Sharing the same chairman, Kevin Foo, they should at least be pretty familiar with one another and the link goes rather deeper than this.

‘Blue sky’ potential

The major shareholder of Victoria Oil & Gas is the Abu Dhabi-based, Noor Petroleum. Not only does Noor know of Bramlin, it is also introducing into the enlarged group the assets of Falcon Petroleum (PFC). Victoria has signed a twelve month option to

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Last year, I wrote that if Uncle Sam gets his way, we’d all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave - or re-enter - the United States. That day has now arrived, but in addition to obtaining Big Brother’s permission to travel internationally, a final rule pursuant to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s “Secure Flight” initiative says we must now get it to travel from state-to-state.”

At some point in the future, you’ll need to reveal your name, gender, and date of birth when you make a domestic airline reservation. The airline will contact TSA to determine if you’re cleared to board. If you’re on any of TSA’s watchlists (which include such deceased “terrorists” as Saddam Hussein, along with live ones such as Sen. Edward Kennedy), you’ll need to provide an official document acceptable for federal identification purposes in order to travel.

Examples of acceptable

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