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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T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. (TROW) saw a nice spike after announcing third-quarter results. Earnings per share of 50 cents were below last year's 56 cents but topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9%. The company also reported a 16% increase in assets under management, totaling $366.2 billion.

Company Description

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is a global investment management organization that provides a broad array of mutual funds, subadvisory services and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, retirement plans and financial intermediaries.

The company offers a variety of sophisticated investment planning and guidance tools. T. Rowe Price's disciplined, risk-aware investment approach focuses on diversification, style consistency, and fundamental research.

Shares Jump on Third Quarter Results

T. Rowe Price saw a nice spike after announcing third-quarter results. Earnings per share of 50 cents were below last year's 56 cents but topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9%.

The company also reported

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What If Jeremy Grantham is Right?

by Alexander Green, Chief Investment Strategist

Jeremy Grantham, president of investment management firm GMO LLC, has been getting a lot of press lately.

At the market’s top, he warned of an impending bear market. At the bottom in March, he forecast a historic rally. Today, he says the market is 25% overvalued.

Should you be worried? Perhaps not.

Let’s start with Grantham’s track record. He’s made a couple of good calls lately. But does he get it right all the time? Of course not. No one does.

But even if he’s right, it wouldn’t necessarily be negative. It all depends on your time horizon. Here’s why…

How Long-Term Investors Can Benefit From A Bear Market

If you own stocks on margin, call options, or LEAP options, a market downturn could be devastating. A 50%

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 19, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the list of companies likely to issue earnings surprises. This week’s list includes Eastman Chemical (EMN), E.I. DuPont (DD), T. Rowe Price (TROW), Western Digital (WDC) and SuperValu (SVU). To see more earnings analysis, visit http://at.zacks.com/?id=3207.

Every day, Zacks.com makes 4 stock picks available, free of charge. To see them, go to http://at.zacks.com/?id=5612.

This Week's Events

Third-quarter earnings season hits full stride this week with 439 companies confirmed to report. More than of a quarter of these are from the S&P 500 (135 companies).

Housing data will be the highlight on the economic calendar. The existing home sales data will be influenced by the first-time home buyers' credit. The starts and permits data could be more interesting, especially if they show fear on the part of builders about the subsidy

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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

Henderson European Focus A (HFEAX), which was founded in August 2001, seeks long-term capital appreciation.

The fund normally invests at least 80% its net assets in equity securities of European companies. It invests in companies of any size and in "growth" stocks.

Unit holders have to make a minimum initial investment of $500 to enter this Zacks #1 Rank ("Strong Buy") fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.62%.

Stephen Peak has been lead manager of the fund since August 2001. He is a well known authority on Continental European Investment.

Eastern Europe Equity Fund A (VEEEX) seeks capital appreciation by investing in equity securities, such as common stocks and securities that

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Last week I asked Ian Wyatt from SmallCapInvestor.com to come and teach us a little about why small caps are perfect for active traders. It got a pretty good response, so today I invited him back to convince us that small cap stocks are our way out of the recession…please feel free to comment with your thoughts and opinions as it’s YOU that drive this blog!

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Investors and traders seeking to recover from the losses of the bear market need to consider small-cap stocks, due to their consistent out-performance following a downturn in the stock market.

Several recent studies show evidence that small-cap stocks are most likely to be the best performing among equities following a recession.

According to a T. Rowe Price report entitled, A Perspective On Financial Topics For Our Investors, in the 12-month period following the end of the last nine recessions, small-cap stocks on average gained 24

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BlackRock Gives “Ups” to the Dollar

For those investors struggling to decide what currency to park their money in, or Americans concerned over the value of our dollar, the recent comments made by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) should put them at ease.

Lawrence Fink, Chairman and CEO of Blackrock stated that they believe the U.S. dollar to be the best long-term currency to protect wealth. Coming from BlackRock, that’s a strong endorsement.

Relatively unknown prior to the financial crisis, BlackRock advised a substantial group of “A-listers” on what to do during the collapse. The result is that BlackRock now counts itself as having the largest amount of funds under management. That’s $1.307 trillion.

Asset manager behemoths like T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW), Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) must

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

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

3 Solid Samples

Metzler/Payden European Emerging Markets (MPYMX) seeks long-term capital appreciation. The fund is non-diversified.

The fund normally invests at least 80% of assets in the equity securities of issuers organized or headquartered in developing economies of Central and Eastern Europe. It invests in securities that trade and pay dividends in euros and other foreign currencies.

Unit holders have to make a minimum initial investment of $5,000 to enter this Zacks#1 Rank (“Strong Buy") fund. It has an expense ratio of 1.47%.

Fidelity Nordic (FNORX) seeks long-term growth of capital by investing in securities of Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish issuers.

The fund may invest the balance,

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 5, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Wal-Mart (WMT), Family Dollar (FDO), TJ Maxx/Marshalls (TJX), The Gap (GPS) and T. Rowe Price (TROW).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Personal Income Falls

If not for government automatic stabilizers and the Stimulus Bill, the overall trend in incomes would be much worse. Demographics are part of the reason that the savings rate is going up, since the Baby Boomers are in a scramble to save for retirement, which

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The pattern of two steps forward and one step back in the economic data took a big step back today with the release of the personal income and spending numbers. Personal income fell by 1.3% for the month, reversing a 1.3% increase in May, and a 0.2% gain in April. Disposable Personal income suffered a 1.3% decline following increases of 1.6% in May and 0.8% in April. The reason for the swing was the timing of some of the Stimulus Act spending. In May, Social Security recipients got an extra one-time $250 payment, which increased personal transfer income by $166.1 billion and caused the May increase. In June, the absence of these one-time payments caused transfer income to fall by $131.7 billion. If one strips out this effect, personal income fell by 0.1% in June after being unchanged in May. Private wages fell by 28.6 billion in June ...