Salient to Investors:

Ifo said its German business climate index had its first gain in 8 months in October and above the median economist prediction. Gernot Nerb at Ifo said the momentum, at least in the next year, will come from outside the euro area. Carsten Brzeski at ING said the report is a positive surprise but certainly doesn’t mean German companies now expect a boom, but more that they don’t want to join the chorus of the doom-and-gloom merchants.

GfK predict German consumer confidence will rise to a 5-yr high this month as rising wages and unemployment near a two-decade low outweigh economic concerns.

Tobias Blattner at Daiwa International expects the German economy to shrink in Q4 but improve in the new year – a dip in growth rather than a recession.

Standard & Poor’s said there’s at least a 1-in-3 chance France’s credit rating will be lowered again in 2013.

Read the full article at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-23/german-business-confidence-unexpectedly-climbed-in-november-1-.html