Another week has come and gone and the headline over the investment world still has not changed. The fundamentals in the U.S. continue to improve based on housing, manufacturing and employment data. However, this data seems to not matter as the world continues to focus on the economic crisis Europeans appear to be unwilling or incapable of resolving.

The equity markets are so volatile at this point it seems to me that traders are moving in and out of positions by the hour, let alone holding a position overnight or over the weekend. What will it take for investors to want to own a stock for longer than one hour or one day? Up until now, valuation does not seem to be a reason to hold a stock for more than a 24-hour period. There are so many quality names (some paying great dividends) that are trading at extremely low levels, yet investors don’t seem to care. The overriding macro and geopolitical headlines coming out of Europe continue to trump everything.

Just this past Thursday in the United States, great unemployment and manufacturing numbers were released. On that Thursday, the DOW Jones Industrial Average went up by just 45 points and the S&P was only slightly positive. In my opinion, if the markets were not fearful of every headline coming out of Europe, this may have been a day where we would have seen triple-digit growth.

Currently, the correlation between the North American stock markets and the Euro and the European stock markets is about .80. A rating of one would mean that they are exactly correlated. Thus, North American equity markets are moving almost identically to those in Europe. Thus, if an investor wants to know how the stock market will trade each day, in my opinion, all one has to do is watch how the Euro markets are trading (they would have been opened for a few hours prior to New York and Toronto due to time difference).

In speaking to investors today, I find the word most often used to describe how things are going is “frustration.” Individuals are tired of hearing about Europe and are frustrated of seeing how well things are doing in North America but having nothing to show for it in the way of growth in their portfolios. When will this pattern end? Perhaps the European Central Bank should be answering this question.

If you have any questions regarding the above article or are looking for an investment advisor to help you with your portfolio, please visit my website at www.investmentadvisorgta.com. I will be glad to speak with you.

Allan Small is a Senior Investment Advisor with DWM Securities Inc., a DundeeWealth Inc. Company. This is not an official publication of DWM Securities Inc. The views expressed are those of the author alone and are not necessarily those of DWM Securities Inc.