Analysts expect that to happen in the second quarter of 2001. All outperformed the sector. Lemoine likes Germany's Allianz, which should benefit from German pension rules taking effect in 2002, and France's AXA, which gains from rising retirement savings and more focus on life insurance and asset management. The company's U.S. acquisitions in the noncyclical food sector should boost 2001 profits. Investors like Unilever's new focus on growing markets.
Analysts are high on several European pharmaceutical companies.
A softer dollar should cut imported raw-material costs and help earnings. Germany's RWE Energie and E.on. Competition has transformed the once-sleepy German energy market, deregulated two years ago. Reich argues that the companies are more efficient. ''German utilities will do better than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe,'' he says. Despite Europe's slowing economy, most strategists like auto stocks, especially Germany's Volkswagen.