Depressed by the state of Europe?

According to The Economist, you should not. The paper affirms that the situation is better than it seems in the Euro-zone and gives some interesting statistics on growth and employment.

On a related subject, France is actually home of the largest IPO of the year: EDF has started trading on Euronext with a market cap of €7bn but the state still controls 85% of the capital. It's actually a great year for bankers working on the French market for IPO and M&A and the latest rumors of a possible bid of Thales by Alcatel will reinforce that trend, although it's not the first time that Thales is in play.