The following video is part of our "Motley Fool Conversations" series, in which consumer goods editor and analyst Austin Smith discusses topics across the investing world. In today's edition, Austin sheds some light on why the big news out of Europe wasn't good enough to send the markets where they needed to be. After opening higher on optimism about Europe's mammoth bailout for Spanish banks, the market corrected and slid down after realizing, "Oh darn, it's not enough." There is credence to the reaction, as the solution is a sector- and region-specific one, not a whole-eurozone silver bullet. Greece, Italy, and Portugal still loom menacingly as the next big land mines to go off.
At the end of the day, though, this is all the same noise we've heard over the last few months. It's nothing to trade on, just information that every aware investor needs to digest. We remain committed to the long-term investment, and you should too. It's a proven strategy to beat up or down markets. If you're stuck for ideas for long-term buy-and-holds, we suggest "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2012." It's an emerging-market retailer that's taking a proven and highly successful business model domestically and overlaying it on a high-growth corner of the world. You can read more about it here. The report is free.
