European banking stocks rose with higher volume trading than U.S. bank stocks, which brings up the question, what eurozone crisis?

High trading volumes indicate many payers are weighing in their opinion on the stock's value. So if European banks are trading up on high volume, it's a good indicator that multiple investors have faith in a recovery. But what evidence has spurred this optimistic trading?

Confidence
"Sovereign risk, within certain bounds, is largely about confidence and is why some countries can fund themselves with debt loads three times greater than others that can't," explains Ritholtz.

Spain and France sold their bonds at lower yields despite France's downgrade, reports Bloomberg. But Manish Singh, London-based head of investment at Crossbridge Capital, is cautious: "The debate on the Greek debt deal with private investors is damping the optimism. Unless the deal is in the bag, I don't think the market will rally on successful auctions alone."

Business section: Investing ideas
Looking for a list of European banks? Here is the complete list of European banks trading on U.S. markets.

Is this the beginning of a relief rally for these stocks? What do you think? (Click here to access free, interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)

1. UBS: Provides wealth management, asset management, and investment banking products and services to private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide.

2. Credit Suisse Group: Operates as a financial services company.

3. Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE: LYG): Provides various banking and financial services to personal and corporate customers primarily in the United Kingdom.

4. Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB): Provides investment, financial, and related products and services.

5. Barclays: Provides various financial products and services in Europe, the United States, Africa, and Asia.

6. Royal Bank of Scotland Group: The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, through its subsidiaries, offers banking and financial services to personal, commercial, corporate, and institutional customers in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally.

7. Banco Santander (NYSE: STD): Provides a range of banking and financial products.

8. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria: Engages in the retail banking, asset management, private banking, and wholesale banking businesses in Spain and internationally.

9. The Governor and Company of The Bank of Ireland (NYSE: IRE): Provides banking and other financial services to small and medium-sized commercial and industrial companies in Ireland and internationally.

10. National Bank of Greece (NYSE: NBG): Provides diversified financial services primarily in Greece.

Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare changes in analyst ratings over the last two years for the stocks mentioned above. Analyst ratings sourced from Zacks Investment Research.


List compiled by Eben Esterhuizen, CFA. Kapitall's Eben Esterhuizen and Rebecca Lipman do not own any of the shares mentioned above. Data sourced from Finviz.